Brussels took steps yesterday to adjust its much-criticised £32bn-a-year farming policy to a threatening new world of food shortages and soaring food prices. The proposals - too radical for some European governments; too timid for others - are likely to generate heated argument in the second half of this year. Wealthy, large landowners, including the Queen, would have part of their EU subsidies removed and invested in environmentally friendly rural developments and traditional, small farms. Compulsory "set-aside" payments to farmers to leave one-tenth of their land fallow would be scrapped, boosting the European harvest of cereals, whose world price has almost trebled in the past year. Limits on milk production (quotas) which have been in place for 25 years would be relaxed and then abolished, reducing - eventually - the upward pressure on dairy prices.The proposals are, in theory, just a "health check" on the much-contested Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which is not scheduled for a root and branch reform until 2013. However, the European Union's cautious, initial schedule has been swamped by events. Soaring global prices for basic foodstuffs threaten widespread famine and have already caused riots in the developing world. In the EU, rising shop prices for food are putting pressure on household budgets and the popularity of governments.
Brussels took steps yesterday to adjust its much-criticised £32bn-a-year farming policy to a threatening new world of food shortages and soaring food prices. The proposals - too radical for some European governments; too timid for others - are likely to generate heated argument in the second half of this year.
Wealthy, large landowners, including the Queen, would have part of their EU subsidies removed and invested in environmentally friendly rural developments and traditional, small farms. Compulsory "set-aside" payments to farmers to leave one-tenth of their land fallow would be scrapped, boosting the European harvest of cereals, whose world price has almost trebled in the past year. Limits on milk production (quotas) which have been in place for 25 years would be relaxed and then abolished, reducing - eventually - the upward pressure on dairy prices.
The proposals are, in theory, just a "health check" on the much-contested Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which is not scheduled for a root and branch reform until 2013. However, the European Union's cautious, initial schedule has been swamped by events. Soaring global prices for basic foodstuffs threaten widespread famine and have already caused riots in the developing world. In the EU, rising shop prices for food are putting pressure on household budgets and the popularity of governments.
Don't ever work with children and animals, they say. A view I can appreciate after trying to persuade French sheep to co-operate for a piece to camera for tonight's BBC News at Ten. Having herded them into the corner of a field in Picardy they simply won't bound about behind me in a tele-visually attractive manner however much I walk backwards into the flock trying to provoke them. Of course when they do oblige and bound around full of the joys of spring I fluff my lines. There is no chance of persuading them to regroup for a retake. I am chasing sheep around Northern France for a report on the reform of one of the European Union's most expensive and most controversial policies. The Common Agricultural Policy no longer takes up 70% of the EU's budget as it did in the 70s but at 43% and a cost of nearly £40bn a year, it is still the EU's most expensive policy. Today the European Commission publishes its "health check" on the CAP which is a prelude to much more serious reform.
Don't ever work with children and animals, they say. A view I can appreciate after trying to persuade French sheep to co-operate for a piece to camera for tonight's BBC News at Ten. Having herded them into the corner of a field in Picardy they simply won't bound about behind me in a tele-visually attractive manner however much I walk backwards into the flock trying to provoke them. Of course when they do oblige and bound around full of the joys of spring I fluff my lines. There is no chance of persuading them to regroup for a retake.
I am chasing sheep around Northern France for a report on the reform of one of the European Union's most expensive and most controversial policies.
The Common Agricultural Policy no longer takes up 70% of the EU's budget as it did in the 70s but at 43% and a cost of nearly £40bn a year, it is still the EU's most expensive policy.
Today the European Commission publishes its "health check" on the CAP which is a prelude to much more serious reform.
When you talk about the R&D budget, the EU bit would need to be added to all the national budgets on the same topic to be compared to the CAP, for instance. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
English farmers could lose cash handouts from Brussels next year unless they agree to make environmental improvements to their land. The European Commission is to announce today an end to the controversial set-aside payment scheme - under which farmers were paid to leave about 8 per cent of their fields fallow - as part of further reform of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP). The payments, intended originally to prevent the creation of grain mountains in Europe, are regarded as outdated, given the worldwide shortage of grain that is being driven by demand from China and India. The payments were suspended this year, but the European Union has ruled that this should now be permanent. Farmers will continue receiving payments from the EU, however, if they make environmental improvements to between 3 per cent and 5 per cent of their land. They will have to agree to keep field margins next to rivers, canals and streams out of production and free from pesticide sprays. French farmers receive handouts from Brussels under the same arrangement.
English farmers could lose cash handouts from Brussels next year unless they agree to make environmental improvements to their land.
The European Commission is to announce today an end to the controversial set-aside payment scheme - under which farmers were paid to leave about 8 per cent of their fields fallow - as part of further reform of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP).
The payments, intended originally to prevent the creation of grain mountains in Europe, are regarded as outdated, given the worldwide shortage of grain that is being driven by demand from China and India.
The payments were suspended this year, but the European Union has ruled that this should now be permanent. Farmers will continue receiving payments from the EU, however, if they make environmental improvements to between 3 per cent and 5 per cent of their land. They will have to agree to keep field margins next to rivers, canals and streams out of production and free from pesticide sprays. French farmers receive handouts from Brussels under the same arrangement.
English farmers
French farmers receive handouts from Brussels
There are two kinds of farmers for Murdoch's upscale tabloid : English (sort of good) and French (definitely bad).
All other Europeans (not even Welsh, Scots, Irish?) would only complicate the Eurosceptic/xenophobic frame of the Times's "reporting". When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind
right...but won't that merely result in messy, weedy banks?
better than pesticides, but couldn't something be planted in edible landscaping, which once installed, would shade out the weeds?
trips down canals should be an aesthetic experience, even if they haven't realised the 'commodity' in that yet!
electric barges+organic ag= edible fish in the waterways again...
good start anyway, well done, little grey brussels-men! The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it. Chinese Proverb.
Stabilizing food prices across Europe needs to be a top priority, Europe's agriculture ministers agree. The hard part will be deciding how to best reform the system. Current European Union agricultural policy encourages farmers to keep land fallow, a practice that seems to contradict the rising global demand for food. The EU seems likely to acknowledge it needs to put more land into production when it announces agricultural reforms on Tuesday, May 20. One solution would be for the EU to phase out its program of paying farmers to keep farmland out of production, hoping that it will help stabilize food prices. "I think it's important that we continue to increase production in Europe as much as we can within the natural limits, also taking into account environmental care," Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel told the DPA news agency.
Current European Union agricultural policy encourages farmers to keep land fallow, a practice that seems to contradict the rising global demand for food. The EU seems likely to acknowledge it needs to put more land into production when it announces agricultural reforms on Tuesday, May 20.
One solution would be for the EU to phase out its program of paying farmers to keep farmland out of production, hoping that it will help stabilize food prices.
"I think it's important that we continue to increase production in Europe as much as we can within the natural limits, also taking into account environmental care," Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel told the DPA news agency.
you are the media you consume.
The commission proposes to get rid of a requirement for farmers to leave 10 percent of their fields fallow for a year in order to make more land available for production.
Subsidised fallow is rather less than half of that.
Fallow includes land that is not usable for industrial farming (for economic/mechanical reasons like small field size). More land (I don't have a total figure) is "set aside" and subsidised for specific purposes that may include environmental protection (wetlands, woodlands) or extensive grazing.
The exact final details of what land will be freed for intensive use will depend on each member state's application of the new rules. The EU sets the overall frame, the member states do the detailed implementation. When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind
"some governments" is used in this sentence
The proposals - too radical for some European governments; too timid for others - are likely to generate heated argument in the second half of this year.
is because they do NOT include France, but DO include the UK, and that does not fit with what' endlessly repeated about the PAC? In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
yup those same ones that create some of the most high quality, tastiest foods and dishes in the word!
gimme a pink tennis ball tomato that never felt the rain or touched the ground!
that's what they would like us to get used to.
those nice corporations, i mean... The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it. Chinese Proverb.
