Categoria: The WineNews Corner

02 Luglio 2012, ore 18:30

THE EUROPEAN UNION SPENDS MORE IN PUBLIC FUNDS FOR AGRICULTURE THAN OTHER COUNTRIES, IS A MYTH: THE U.S. SPENDS 3 TIMES MORE- 442 EUROS PRO CAPITA AGAINST 151 EUROS, REVEALS THE MOVEMENT FOR WORLD AGRICULTURE, MOMAGRI STUDY

The item "agriculture" is the biggest on the EU budget, over 40% of the total. But while the new Common Agricultural Policy is discussing reforms, the amount of resources and how to distribute them, it turns out that subsidies for the sector in the U.S. are 3 times more than in the Eurozone. The indicator "SGPA" (Global Support to Agricultural Production) developed by MOMAGRI, (Movement for the worldwide organization of agriculture) revealed that the U.S. government "spent" 422 euros per capita (138 billion euros in total), compared with 151 EU (76 billion euros) for agriculture in 2010.
And the gap has been growing since 2008. On the other side of the Atlantic, MOMAGRI says that agriculture policies are focused on promoting and ensuring agricultural production, from farmers to consumers, in an anti-cyclical manner, i.e. taking into account market trends. Another specific feature is domestic food aid (54% of SGPA in 2010), generally considered a welfare benefit, which in fact is an active aid to the American agriculture and agro-food sector and is estimated at over 94 billion dollars. The current reform - the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012 - is considering whether to modify the mechanisms of income protection, while maintaining the strength of an arsenal of subsidies. EU support is primarily intended to direct subsidies to farmers for their standard of living (64% of SGPA in 2010): in particular, these include single payment schemes, which meet 47% of all aid to agriculture paid in 2010. Aid is focused on farmers, but is not linked to production and market prices.
"Thus, the European policy”, explains MOMAGRI “does not have the tools to efficiently respond to the instability of prices. And the post-2013 CAP reform proposal by the European Commission is even worse as it does not address the difficulties of European farmers”. In light of this study, MOMAGRI urges European leaders to include in the future CAP authentic regulatory mechanisms to stabilize agricultural prices and incomes, while introducing greater spending efficiency in the European Union.
“Otherwise, the EU will have to assume a greater food dependency, with all the social, financial and political consequences implicated. The process has already begun, as EU imports have doubled in the last decade and seems to import the equivalent of production in 87 million acres of land, equal to the area of Germany”. 

Info: www.momagri.org 

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