Author: Jack Thurston

Jack is a freelance writer, broadcaster and activist based in London. He is a co-founder of farmsubsidy.org, the campaign for transparency in the EU's common agricultural policy and has served as a special adviser to the UK minister for agriculture and as a transatlantic fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He has degrees in PPE from Oxford University and in public policy analysis from the University of California at Berkeley.
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Investors buying up farm subsidies

The past week has seen a series of revelations in the media about the way that decoupled farm subsidies are operating in Scotland. It has become evident that farm subsidy entitlements are being sold by farmers and that investors – who may never have set foot on a farm – are buying up entitlements to claim the new Single Farm Payment, which accounts for the bulk of the European Union’s £48.5 billion Common Agricultural Policy.… Read the rest

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Fischer Boel: one vision, two steps

Speaking at the annual conference of the National Farmers’ Union, EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel set out her priorities for next year’s CAP ‘health check’. She described her approach as ‘one vision, two steps’, the first step being the health check and the second step being the EU budget review scheduled for 2008/09. It will be very interesting to see how successful she will be in keeping these two steps separate, as the sheer size of the CAP in relation to the rest of the EU budget (in 2005 it was a shade under 50%) makes it impossible to have any meaningful budget discussions without addressing the future of the CAP.… Read the rest

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Welcome

Welcome to the CAP Health Check blog. This is where to come for news, views and analysis relating to the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy and specifically the ‘health check’ (or policy review) scheduled for 2008. The blog brings together the work of researchers, activists and analysts from across Europe and elsewhere. If you want to contribute your analysis or views to the blog, please use the contact form to get in touch or send email to news@capreform.eu. If you want to comment on a particular story, use the comment form at the bottom of every story.

There’s very little on the blog right now, but the hope is that over time it will build up into a valuable resource for people interested in the future of Europe’s farming, food and rural development policies.… Read the rest