Updates from EU Member States, including reports from ARC Web Correspondents
UK government backs fracking
Chancellor announces tax cuts […]
Updates from EU Member States, including reports from ARC Web Correspondents
Chancellor announces tax cuts […]
Leaked document reveals plans for large-scale international land deal […]
ARC’s Berlin office becomes a local pick-up point for Community Supported Agriculture scheme […]
UK Centre for Agroecology and Food Security organises ‘Food From Here’ conference […]
Government plans restrictions […]
Drugs revealed by Czech tests […]
Activists for good food and good farming gather in Bavarian capital for day of action […]
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) maintains local food for producers and consumers […]
The last refuge for biodiversity comes under threat in Eastern Europe […]
Actions planned in Berlin as farmers take a stand against those buying up their land […]
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) raising concerns around Europe […]
The National Farmers’ Union in England (NFU) this week criticised government ministers for “…their lack of engagement with farmers over plans for implementing the CAP.” The union accused secretary of state Owen Patterson and farming minister David Heath of refusing “…to listen to the concerns raised by farmers at shows around the country.” NFU deputy president Meurig Raymond declared: “Our members feel that they have been let down over these negotiations through Defra ministers’ refusal to listen to them.” He predicted that: “Defra minsters’ plans are likely to include the maximum 15% voluntary modulation. This on top of 10% EU-wide modulation, future financial discipline cuts, which in 2013 will be 5% and up to 2% removed from direct payments for a mandatory young farmers scheme, could see English direct payments cut by around 20% under the reformed CAP.” NFU members may not all be strong supporters of the European Union, but they can find common cause and voice their disagreement if CAP funding is under threat.
With the final stages of the CAP reform process getting under way, UK environment secretary Owen Paterson today demonstrated his grasp of the underlying issues under discussion. It would seem that Paterson believes that Ray MacSharry’s or Franz Fischler’s reforms could somehow be undone. “Some Member States have been pressing to take CAP back to the dark days of butter mountains and wine lakes, with costly interventions in the market,” the British minister insisted. “I have resisted this every step of the way. That’s why Germany and the UK were unable to support one of the regulations which manages the EU food and agriculture market,” he asserted. The minister is not for turning, either. Like a former UK prime minister recently interred in the crypt at Westminster, Paterson is happy to make farming sound like an extension of shopping. “All along I have rejected moves that would increase costs for hard pressed consumers. British shoppers should not have to pay twice for the CAP – once through their taxes and again at the supermarket tills.” […]
As Obama arrives in Berlin, concerns are raised about impact of transatlantic trade agreement (TTIP) […]
G8 summit: Leaders urged to act with greater transparency and focus on climate change […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention