But, in contrast to facts about distribution to big farmers, here's something from a supposedly serious UK newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, explaining the UK rebate:
The rebate aims to address the way that EU spending is dominated by agricultural subsidies largely favouring small farmers. There are millions of smallholders in France, which designed the system, but few in Britain.
For the record, there are about 450,000 farmers in France receiving CAP subsidies, and most of those are by no stretch of the imagination "smallholders".
Shouldn't it read, most of the money goes to those who are by no stretch of the imagination "smallholders"? *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
But what you say is also true.
There is, however, a lively movement in France in favour of organic and/or high-quality local production by small, sustainable units. Greens/organic people, on the one hand, and among farmers, the Confédération Paysanne, the union José Bové led, are fairly noisy and inspire quite a lot of sympathy.
