Planting stuff in European Union

[Qilue]

I found this link -

http://impact.typepad.com/articles/2005/03/the_wheat_subsi.html

While it has little to do with EU farming as such, there is a mention of farm subsities around the world.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
in switzerland its legal to have marijuana plants, but its illegal to smoke it.

"Why no officer. I just like landscaping my yard with marijuana plants."

[alva]

While in Belgium it's (semi) legal to smoke pot but illegal to grow it.

[alva]

Originally posted by VetLegion


Ah, alva, also a supporter of the compulsory personal ID if I recall correctly. Well, at least you're consistent in your anti liberty stances

[Odin]

Man, the EU is really f*cked up...

subsidies:

sucking up to uncompetitive farmers:

[Adam Smith]

Lemme see if I got this straight...

France and Germany have roughly the same area, geography, and climate as the NE US (i.e., north of the Potomac and Ohio rivers, and east of the Mississippi - NOT especially good for growing wheat). But France and Germany produce more wheat than the entire US. And the EU as a whole (NOT counting any of the countires in eastern europe) produces more wheat than the entire FSU?

http://www.usda.gov/nass/pubs/agr04/04_ch1.pdf

(see p. I-8)
If I was a wheat farmer just about anywhere else in the world I would be seriously pissed.

[VetLegion]

I don't know about those figures. Could be true.

My main concern here is freedom. EU is big on rule of law, and laws clearly guarantee freedom of enterprise. A country can do a lot of things to limit freedoms, but usually only in case of war or threat to public safety.

So how then can EU forbid citizens to plant vineyards is beyond me. It's hard to believe it would do that literally. There must be a catch of some sort. Really strong incentives to comply with quotas, but without outright bans.

What is the case is not easy to distinguish from the online documents I have read.

[JohnT]

I'm always stunned at the amount of political power farmers have in France, and apparently, the entire EU. WTF's up with that? Why didn't y'all automate them into insignificance earlier this century like we did here?

I'm thinking about it and the last time I remember a presidential campaign that actively sought out farming votes as a significant block was Truman in '48.

[alva]

We don't get it either, they are very well organised, I guess that makes the difference.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Farmers have pretty decent pull here in the US as well. Look at our agg subsidies and Iowa's position in the primaries means that ethanol subsidies ain't going anywhere. Not anywhere near as powerful in Europe, but still they have power in the States.

[JohnT]

Ag subsidies and Iowa's (declining) prominence in the primaries is nowhere near comparable to the things discussed in this thread.

[VetLegion]

According to estimates by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), EU subsidies and other transfers from governments of member nations accounted for 35 percent of farm revenue in 2001, compared with 21 percent in the United States.

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/EuropeanUnion/PolicyCommon.htm

That's why I'm not opposed to subsidies per se. US does them too.

I'm opposed to regulations limiting my enterpreneurial freedom. That's on principle of course, I don't plan to be a farmer actually

[Lawrence of Arabia]

"Why no officer. I just like landscaping my yard with marijuana plants."

actually, yeah, the last time i was there, the local paper had on the front page the story about a guy who had hella plants and the cops showed up but couldnt arrest him cuz you can grow them, and then were was a mini scandal i guess.

[RGBVideo]

Europe had enough food to eat. In fact it had so much that farmers were going bankrupt due to low prices so France hatched the CAP, got the Germans to agree to it, and then farmers became the biggest budget pigs in Europe.

True.

Ag subsidies and Iowa's (declining) prominence in the primaries is nowhere near comparable to the things discussed in this thread.

Do they take 1/3 of the federal budget?

[JohnT]

God no. Total (state and federal) US ag subsidies are about $20 billion (PDF), or one percent of the US Federal budget. I've seen figures where the EU figure is 6 times that of the US, or about $120 billion, but that is probably including the individual nations as well as the EU itself.