AI
Sunday, February 01, 2009 2:06:46 AM
Yep, the most needy should get their fairest share. Haven't looked lately,
but i think Europe is still trying to help out small farmers more than we have.
"With Alpine milk farmers, the fear is that if they go out of business, they won't come back.
They're not just milk producers - there is the environment to consider, too," he told BBC News.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7846827.stm
Estonia, isn't Europe yet, but it's an interesting little one and does
support the suggestion that small farmers are still the go in Europe.
Farmers are adjusting to the requirements of EU membership
State of the Union
Reporter: Jeff Waters
First Published: 24/11/2002
Life has been no hayride for dairy farmer Vello Eensalu; he's been forced to grow accustomed to change.
His farm is in Estonia - one of ten nations lining-up to join the European Union.
Vello's late father secured the farm just over a decade ago when the communist collective system was abolished.
Estonia rushed into capitalism. The government introduced a completely unsubsidised,
unprotected market - completely unlike its Western European neighbours.
Many farms went bust.
Twelve years ago Estonia exported 40 per cent of its agricultural produce, now it is a net importer.
In the last ten years the country's total cowherd has dropped by 90 per cent.
A quarter of arable land now sits uncultivated.
"Well, first of all the major problem was the restitution of land. At the beginning of private farming everything was strange for us. We did not know, or we lacked the tradition of what private farming meant. We only had large collective farms until then," Vello Eensalu, Estonian dairy farmer, said.
To keep his farm going in such difficult circumstances, Vello has diversified.
He now produces cheese and yoghurt, which he sells as special Estonian local produce to big hotels.
He's prepared for joining the European Union - his facilities meet the strict hygiene standards required.
But even after Estonia joins the so-called free-market union, he'll only be allowed to sell his products in Estonia.
To export to Germany, Denmark or Sweden, he'd need to buy computer monitoring equipment. The cost would break him.
He wants to know why cheese deemed safe for Estonians isn't good enough for Western Europeans.
Its one small, bureaucratic example of how Brussels appears to be setting-up a two-tier continent - designed to discourage family farming - particularly in the new member countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
Vello produces fodder not just for his own cows - but he uses some to trade with a local company for fertiliser.
Small farmers in Western Europe may soon find life similarly difficult.
Some powerful EU nations - including Germany and Britain - are pushing
for changes in the bloc's common agricultural policy to favour big farms.
Vello says all subsidies should be abolished, and that western farmers should learn to diversify like he has.
"Unfortunately in the case of competition, each entrepreneur must survive in difficult circumstances. They should either find an additional farming branch or just quit if it does not pay off any more," Vello Eensalu said.
Vello's even experimenting with new feed for Estonia.
This is one of the most northerly fields of maize in the world.
But all across Estonia, as well as the other relatively poor nations trying to join the EU, fear has gripped the owners of family farms.
And on this day, Vello, along with a group of other local farmers, has been given the opportunity to directly question the leader of his government.
Prime Minister Siim Kallas, in an early act of election campaigning, is travelling his country trying to calm the minds of his farming electorate.
For now, the EU is only offering farmers in new member countries a quarter of what they pay to their own farmers in the west.
And Brussels still hasn't promised to lift quotas so Estonians can export more products to the rich countries.
He admits Estonia is likely to remain poor.
"There will be inequality, so if the situation which is proposed that the subsidies which will be released to new candidate countries they will be lower than subsidies for member countries its, of course, unfair, and its unequal treatment. But from the Estonian side we are more interested in reforming the Common Agricultural Policy than actually fighting for maintaining the same system and fighting for getting more subsidies from the system," Siim Kallas, Estonian Prime Minister, said.
Prime Minister Kallas frankly admits the new system under the EU will probably see large, company
farms, often owned by foreigners, eventually take over the east's agricultural sector.
He himself says bigger is better.
"The market must be based on efficient production, no doubt but as in everywhere the small farmers have a big number of people so the electorate is substantial. I mean that this desire to divide lines this desire in some circles exist from our side with our small country's capabilities we will fight for free market and efficient production," Prime Minister Kallas said.
In Western Europe, the small farm tradition has been uninterrupted, and here in France, subsidies have become a way of life.
French farms are the biggest beneficiaries of the EU's agriculture budget, and France is lobbying hard to maintain the status quo.
For now at least, Paris has been successful in fighting the sort of change which would see subsidies paid-out in proportion to the size of a farm - not on its production. So in the short term, it is likely we'll see the continuation of a two-tier Europe, with - poor farms in the east and richer ones in the west. But in the long term - as pressure mounts on the French - Europe's entire agricultural landscape could change, as small farms are financially undermined by governments on both sides of the old iron curtain.
Francois Dufour is the deputy head of the vocal French Farmers' Confederation.
He wants to stop the European overproduction which hurts the developing world.
But he wants small French farms protected in the process, as huge factory farms start to creep across France.
"In the West, we wish to see a ceiling on subsidies - that is a limit to aid per farm that takes the number of jobs into account, that takes the region into account. We want to limit these subsidies to stop large holdings from continuing to grow and create overproduction. The gain from this limitation would allow us to re-inject some money into small and medium holdings to support their activities and compensate the income of small and medium farmers in the East," Francois Dufour, French Farmers' Confederation, said.
Bernard Joubin owns and runs a dairy farm not unlike the one in Estonia.
His subsidies have fallen to a level which makes no real difference to his income - about 3000 dollars a year.
He too despairs of the emergence of company farms, saying that small farmers are better at maintaining environmental standards.
Small farmers in the East and the West have a lot in common.
"We are a bit worried, worried for our income and worried about the number of farmers also as, now, well, one does not know... there are different types of agriculture, an agriculture with very large holdings and huge means of production and beside that an agriculture less important in size. So, for me, personally, l ask myself the question, will we still be needed tomorrow," Bernard Joubin, French dairy farmer, said.
If European expansion does result in big farms taking over the continent,
Bernard says farmers all over the world will continue to suffer.
He says bigger European farms - still subsidised - can only
lead to further overproduction, which will impact on global markets.
"I think we shall be in a environment of overproduction at the level of Europe and whoever says overproduction
automatically says costs will fall ... sorry prices will fall - without necessarily a lowering of costs. Which is
why we are worried about our future, not only ours but also the future of those who will join Europe," Bernard said.
It's not a good time to be a smallholder in Europe.
As politicians rush to finalise negotiations on pan-European agriculture policy,
family farmers are left to wonder if they'll still be in business in a few years time.
http://www.abc.net.au/landline/stories/s731895.htm
but i think Europe is still trying to help out small farmers more than we have.
"With Alpine milk farmers, the fear is that if they go out of business, they won't come back.
They're not just milk producers - there is the environment to consider, too," he told BBC News.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7846827.stm
Estonia, isn't Europe yet, but it's an interesting little one and does
support the suggestion that small farmers are still the go in Europe.
Farmers are adjusting to the requirements of EU membership
State of the Union
Reporter: Jeff Waters
First Published: 24/11/2002
Life has been no hayride for dairy farmer Vello Eensalu; he's been forced to grow accustomed to change.
His farm is in Estonia - one of ten nations lining-up to join the European Union.
Vello's late father secured the farm just over a decade ago when the communist collective system was abolished.
Estonia rushed into capitalism. The government introduced a completely unsubsidised,
unprotected market - completely unlike its Western European neighbours.
Many farms went bust.
Twelve years ago Estonia exported 40 per cent of its agricultural produce, now it is a net importer.
In the last ten years the country's total cowherd has dropped by 90 per cent.
A quarter of arable land now sits uncultivated.
"Well, first of all the major problem was the restitution of land. At the beginning of private farming everything was strange for us. We did not know, or we lacked the tradition of what private farming meant. We only had large collective farms until then," Vello Eensalu, Estonian dairy farmer, said.
To keep his farm going in such difficult circumstances, Vello has diversified.
He now produces cheese and yoghurt, which he sells as special Estonian local produce to big hotels.
He's prepared for joining the European Union - his facilities meet the strict hygiene standards required.
But even after Estonia joins the so-called free-market union, he'll only be allowed to sell his products in Estonia.
To export to Germany, Denmark or Sweden, he'd need to buy computer monitoring equipment. The cost would break him.
He wants to know why cheese deemed safe for Estonians isn't good enough for Western Europeans.
Its one small, bureaucratic example of how Brussels appears to be setting-up a two-tier continent - designed to discourage family farming - particularly in the new member countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
Vello produces fodder not just for his own cows - but he uses some to trade with a local company for fertiliser.
Small farmers in Western Europe may soon find life similarly difficult.
Some powerful EU nations - including Germany and Britain - are pushing
for changes in the bloc's common agricultural policy to favour big farms.
Vello says all subsidies should be abolished, and that western farmers should learn to diversify like he has.
"Unfortunately in the case of competition, each entrepreneur must survive in difficult circumstances. They should either find an additional farming branch or just quit if it does not pay off any more," Vello Eensalu said.
Vello's even experimenting with new feed for Estonia.
This is one of the most northerly fields of maize in the world.
But all across Estonia, as well as the other relatively poor nations trying to join the EU, fear has gripped the owners of family farms.
And on this day, Vello, along with a group of other local farmers, has been given the opportunity to directly question the leader of his government.
Prime Minister Siim Kallas, in an early act of election campaigning, is travelling his country trying to calm the minds of his farming electorate.
For now, the EU is only offering farmers in new member countries a quarter of what they pay to their own farmers in the west.
And Brussels still hasn't promised to lift quotas so Estonians can export more products to the rich countries.
He admits Estonia is likely to remain poor.
"There will be inequality, so if the situation which is proposed that the subsidies which will be released to new candidate countries they will be lower than subsidies for member countries its, of course, unfair, and its unequal treatment. But from the Estonian side we are more interested in reforming the Common Agricultural Policy than actually fighting for maintaining the same system and fighting for getting more subsidies from the system," Siim Kallas, Estonian Prime Minister, said.
Prime Minister Kallas frankly admits the new system under the EU will probably see large, company
farms, often owned by foreigners, eventually take over the east's agricultural sector.
He himself says bigger is better.
"The market must be based on efficient production, no doubt but as in everywhere the small farmers have a big number of people so the electorate is substantial. I mean that this desire to divide lines this desire in some circles exist from our side with our small country's capabilities we will fight for free market and efficient production," Prime Minister Kallas said.
In Western Europe, the small farm tradition has been uninterrupted, and here in France, subsidies have become a way of life.
French farms are the biggest beneficiaries of the EU's agriculture budget, and France is lobbying hard to maintain the status quo.
For now at least, Paris has been successful in fighting the sort of change which would see subsidies paid-out in proportion to the size of a farm - not on its production. So in the short term, it is likely we'll see the continuation of a two-tier Europe, with - poor farms in the east and richer ones in the west. But in the long term - as pressure mounts on the French - Europe's entire agricultural landscape could change, as small farms are financially undermined by governments on both sides of the old iron curtain.
Francois Dufour is the deputy head of the vocal French Farmers' Confederation.
He wants to stop the European overproduction which hurts the developing world.
But he wants small French farms protected in the process, as huge factory farms start to creep across France.
"In the West, we wish to see a ceiling on subsidies - that is a limit to aid per farm that takes the number of jobs into account, that takes the region into account. We want to limit these subsidies to stop large holdings from continuing to grow and create overproduction. The gain from this limitation would allow us to re-inject some money into small and medium holdings to support their activities and compensate the income of small and medium farmers in the East," Francois Dufour, French Farmers' Confederation, said.
Bernard Joubin owns and runs a dairy farm not unlike the one in Estonia.
His subsidies have fallen to a level which makes no real difference to his income - about 3000 dollars a year.
He too despairs of the emergence of company farms, saying that small farmers are better at maintaining environmental standards.
Small farmers in the East and the West have a lot in common.
"We are a bit worried, worried for our income and worried about the number of farmers also as, now, well, one does not know... there are different types of agriculture, an agriculture with very large holdings and huge means of production and beside that an agriculture less important in size. So, for me, personally, l ask myself the question, will we still be needed tomorrow," Bernard Joubin, French dairy farmer, said.
If European expansion does result in big farms taking over the continent,
Bernard says farmers all over the world will continue to suffer.
He says bigger European farms - still subsidised - can only
lead to further overproduction, which will impact on global markets.
"I think we shall be in a environment of overproduction at the level of Europe and whoever says overproduction
automatically says costs will fall ... sorry prices will fall - without necessarily a lowering of costs. Which is
why we are worried about our future, not only ours but also the future of those who will join Europe," Bernard said.
It's not a good time to be a smallholder in Europe.
As politicians rush to finalise negotiations on pan-European agriculture policy,
family farmers are left to wonder if they'll still be in business in a few years time.
http://www.abc.net.au/landline/stories/s731895.htm
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