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EU Proposal: Shift Farming Subsidies To Science

Posted by Unknown on from the agribusiness-displeased dept.

smitty777 writes "There is a proposal in the EU budget which would provide a 45% increase in technology and innovation spending for the 2014-2020 time period. Interestingly, some of the increase from $79B to $114B would come from the controversial farm subsidies program, the Common Agricultural Policy. The article states ... 'While some scientists and observers feel optimistic that the proposal will pass, one stated that "it is extremely unlikely that the member states will agree to anything exceeding this, so we should regard it as a ceiling" on the eventual research budget.'"

2 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. The CAP is badly run, inefficient, but a good idea by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The CAP is badly run, inefficient, but a good idea. The EU are very bad at publicising the true aim of the CAP, which is food security. Most people seem to think it is just some sort of political back-hander to farmers, but the truth is that without it European farmers could not compete on an open market. This would result on reliance on countries in Africa, Asia, etc. for most of our food. When scarcities occur these countries may well impose a cap on exports. China and India have both limited rice exports in the past. Also if countries know that we are dependent on them it becomes a political weapon. It is worth spending some money to ensure that we are not totally reliant on outside sources for food.

    Now if they want to save money on inefficiencies in the implementation of the CAP and spend it on science I am 100% behind that, but if they want to rely on the world market for our food supply I think that is a dangerous idea.

  2. Re:Ha, yeah, good luck with that by Hartree · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Really? You live in the city, right?

    I sure know a lot of family owned farms here in east central Illinois that take the subsidy programs.

    But, what do I know. I just hang out with farmers and own farmland of my own. I assure you I'm hardly a megacorp.

    Yes, the large corporations like ADM and many others do large lobbying pushes, but they don't directly vote. In farm states (you probably call them fly-over states), the congress-critters often rely on the farm vote to keep their jobs.

    Whether it should be that way is a different discussion, but the simple picture you paint is misleading at best.