An excellent briefing document on the likely direction of the CAP Health Check – and the political forces at play – has been published by the Institute for European Environment Policy (IEEP). To my mind it is the best overview available at this time and I’m delighted that IEEP experts Tamsin Cooper and Martin Farmer have recently joined the CAP Health Check blog. Read it here (PDF). There is also a short update following the leak of a DG Agriculture draft of the proposals due in November 2007. … Read the rest
Who benefits from farm subsidies: farmers or landowners?
One of the most contentious issues surrounding farm subsidies is how much of what is paid out actually finds its way into the pocket of the farmer, and how much leaks out into rents paid to landlords, prices charged by the companies selling seed, feed, machines, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other inputs. … Read the rest
Leaked proposals on subsidy payment limits: first analysis
Analysis of the Commission’s leaked proposals for the CAP Health Check show that the payment limitations proposal is significantly less ambitious than the proposal made during the Agenda 2000 (1999) and Mid-Term Review (2003) reforms of the CAP.… Read the rest
CAP v GPS?
My farmsubsidy.org colleague Brigitte Alfter tells me that the Danish Liberal Party is proposing diverting CAP money to Galileo, the EU’s sat nav (Global Positioning Satellite) system.
If you had €55 billion what would you spend it on?
Update (20 September):
It looks as though the Danish Liberal Party are not the only ones eyeing up the CAP as a source of money for Galileo. Deutsche Welle reports that the Commission is now proposing that unspent CAP funds be used for the project. High commodity prices mean that the Commission has probably been spending less than expected on intervention and export subsidies, so there could well be some spare cash in the CAP pot.… Read the rest
Sarko to scrap the CAP?
Hyperactive French President Nicolas Sarkozy this week made a fundamental break with his predecessors, endorsing ‘radical reform’ of Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy, according to a report by Agence France Presse. … Read the rest
Biofuels: a giant con-trick says the OECD
The EU’s headlong rush to convert enormous swathes of farmland into plantations of oilseed rape, corn and other crops grown for use as alternatives to fossil fuels is a giant con-trick, according to a report by the OECD that has been leaked to the Financial Times. … Read the rest
Handy primer on CAP reform debate
The new issue of Food Ethics magazine is devoted to a discussion of CAP reform and the 2008 CAP Health Check. Alongside articles by CAP Health Check blogger Wyn Grant and me, you’ll find some useful analysis by many of the movers and shakers in the CAP debate, both in Brussels, the UK and elsewhere. Read article-by-article here, or download the entire magazine as a handy PDF file: Food Ethics – CAP Reform issue. The Food Ethics Council is a UK-registered charity that challenges government, business and society to make wise choices that lead to better food and farming.… Read the rest
Agflation goes mainstream
A report on the UK’s Channel 4 News looks at likely increases in the prices of meat in the UK and elsewhere, as a result of increases in world cereals prices. A subject that has been discussed for several months here on CAP Health Check has entered the mainstream. View the report below the fold, including a short clip of me explaining the impact of changing diets in China. See also a feature story in The Guardian, drawing on neo-Malthusian Lester Brown’s latest book ‘Who will feed China?’… Read the rest
Get paid for blogging the CAP!
In the six months since it was launched, the CAP Health Check blog has established itself as the best place on the web for news, views and debate on the future of European food, farming and rural policy. We are now looking to expand our team with new voices and have secured funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation so that we can now pay bloggers a modest amount in recognition of their contribution to the debate on the future of the CAP.… Read the rest
How not to reform farm subsidies (American style)
On the other side of the Atlantic the five-yearly federal farm bill debate is reaching its climax. A bill approved unanimously by the powerful House agriculture committee has been roundly attacked by reformers who wanted to see less in the way of multi-million dollar payouts to large agribusinesses and more resources for conservation programmes and economic development assistance for rural areas.… Read the rest