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ASHER, NORWAY

Odd-Eynar Hjortnes, a boyish looking 35-year-old, trundles backwards down the cowshed, in what is in effect a giant motorised wheelbarrow. He's spreading out the morning fodder in front of his 50 or so cows. They surge forward to munch enthusiastically on the clover-rich fodder, although many of them also seem to appreciate snacking on my jacket, which I fear may have had some input from their distant relatives.

About half an hour's drive from Oslo this area is traditionally a big farming area, providing not only milk and meat, but fruit and vegetables for the capital. The cowshed is perched on a snowy hillside, the fir tree-dotted landscape undulating gently down towards the horizon.

Odd-Eynar's farm is organic and in the summer he takes his cows to the mountains and the alpine pastures, a couple of hours' drive from the farm. "They love it," he says, and the summer break is clearly a bit of a holiday both for him and his cattle.

Like most of Norway's farmers Odd-Eynar is very happy that his country is outside the European Union and the . He tells me: "The fundamental idea of the European Union is economic liberalism and that doesn't suit my sort of business.

"This is a long-term business that needs a stable framework. It's much easier to travel to Oslo to protest if there is something you disagree with than to travel to Brussels, and I feel that Norwegian democracy makes it quite easy to get in contact with the politicians."

He continues: "The CAP is not suitable for Norwegian agriculture".

I feel a tug on my jacket, an occupational hazard as the cameraman manoeuvres me, trying to get the interviewee looking in the right direction. I shuffle backwards as I ask the next question. But it is not the estimable Xav tugging on me but a calf keen to sample my jacket, which clearly would be voted a top hors d'oeuvre by Norway's bovine population.

The crux of their owner's argument is that he simply gets more out of Oslo than he would out of Brussels. "Yeah definitely. About 40% of what I earn is a subsidy. But the price of milk is central. I get paid about five kroner (about 50 pence) a litre. Our home market is protected by tolls, so we can maintain a higher price. If I was a milk producer selling my product inside the EU the price would be a third lower at least. The toll barriers between the countries would disappear and the milk price in Sweden and Denmark is at least 30% lower than in Norway. We would go out of business.

The Norwegian case against joining the EU is a particular one, based on an oil-rich economy, a big traditional reliance on fishing and, I am repeatedly told, independent-minded smallholders with historical memories of Swedish and Danish domination that has made them fiercely proud of their independence.

Norwegian farming is particular, too. The growing season is short and in a country of mountains agricultural land is scarce. Big farms are rare and laws are designed to keep it that way. It has, I am told, the northernmost farms in the world, well into the Arctic Circle. What intrigues me about this is that the present-day CAP is meant to preserve the rural way of life.

But the Norwegian farmers union's Christian Anton Smedshaug says: "The farmers want the government as close to them as possible.

"Our small fields and our short growing system would not be able to compete in the free market of continental Europe. The CAP is based on the most competitive farmers producing food cheaply for society and that is quite efficient. But in more marginal areas like Norway it's not good. We get a policy that is more adapted to Norwegian conditions, with a national policy. We definitely get more out of our parliament than we would out of the European Commission."

I make the obvious point that guaranteed high prices and high subsidies may not be quite so good for the Norwegian consumer.

"They also want a successful country, they want to see the country grow, that the farms are used and that people are living everywhere and that we have a sustainable agriculture. Cheaper food is a marginal thing compared to the loss of the whole country."

The cows chew happily on the delicacy from Brussels otherwise known as my warm but un-televisual brown coat. I return the compliment later over a coffee. Odd-Eynar's home-made brown cheese is marvellous. There is not a lutte fish in sight.

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