Radio 4 was running a interesting
article last night on the relative prosperity of farmers with the new price
levels. This failed to fully consider
that livestock are paying heavily for this `arable boom’. The CAP is in the process of being redesigned
(again), which did not make sense in some quarters. `What was the point of encouraging farmers to
continue to struggle to produce goods at the top of the Alps, whilst limiting
with quotas other farmers who could not cash in on rising world demand for
certain (milk) products.
Here are some current articles of
interest:
Firstly from the EU itself:
1. Food and farming: Health Check
will modernise the CAP and free farmers to respond to growing demand
2. Battle looms over CAP Health
Check
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/05/20/eacap120.xml
World Trade Association matters:
3. EU farmers see WTO losses of
€30bn
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0520/breaking65.htm