1. Fairness, transparency
and support
Westminster Food & Nutrition Forum
13 October 2010
Jack Thurston
Co-founder, farmsubsidy.org

3. If citizens knew how the
EU spends €55 billion a
year on farm subsidies...
Would they approve?

4. Our method
Freedom of
information Good stories
+ +
Beer
Investigative Public debate policy
reporting

8. 6 | | BUSINESS Business & Media |
21.05.06
CASH COWS
WHAT IT COSTS THE TAXPAYER TO DESTABILISE DAIRY MARKETS
British export subsidies, by Export subsidy granted, by company, 2004 and 2005
destination country, 2004 and 2005
Fayrefield
Foods* £22,149,818
Philpot Dairy
Products £21,957,002
SAUDI Dale
ARABIA Farm* £19,391,504
£2,147,003
INDIA
£1,244,914 Nestle
UK £7,442,672
JA N
APAN
UAE BANGLADESH £1,24 273
£ 44,2
ALGERIA £6,016,605 £3,479,499
£9,413,948
TMC Dairies
EGYP
YPT (NI) £6,421,069
MEXICO £3,03 340
,031,340
£7,714,200
PH IPPINE
PHILIP NES
JAMAICA
JA AICA £1,7 ,901
,708,9
£2,296,9 7
£2 296,987 OMA
OMAN Hoogwegt
£4,660,97
,660,973 International £6,016,872
SUDAN THAILA D
HAILAND
IVORY COAST
IVO £3,906,970 £6 06,805
£6,706,80
VENEZUELA £5,722,515
722,515 Lakeland Dairies
£2,274,752 (NI) £4,863,754
NIGERIA
£11,782,308 IND
INDONESIA
ESIA
£2,94 8
£2,947,118
Eilers & Wheeler
Sales £4,009,257
Meadow
Foods £3,335,750
KEY F Uhrenholt
Dairy £3,084,188
*includes subsidiaries
£1 to £4m £4 to £7m £7m+
£0m 5 10 15 20
GRAPHIC: CATH LEVETT PHOTOGRAPH: ALAMY SOURCE: FARMSUBSIDY.COM
Who’s creaming off EU subsidies?
Exports of cheap European dairy products are crushing the livelihoods of developing world farmers, writes Heather Stewart
ritish-based exporters, including known as the EU ‘butter mountain’ cow is one of the most reliable ways of on behalf of the EU, said Britain would
Nestle and Dairy Crest, have (‘wine lakes’ were another manifestation Peter Mandelson lifting yourself out of poverty,’ says like to see them abolished.
claimed £126m of taxpayers’ of the same problem). But after a barrage agreed to Europe Thurston, who is trying to compile a ‘We would prefer that export refunds

10. Three BIG problems with the CAP:
1. It’s Expensive
2. It’s Untargeted
3. It’s Unequal

11. Three BIG problems with the CAP:
1. It’s Expensive
2. It’s Untargeted
3. It’s Unequal

12. Growth of the CAP budget
€ billions EU-10 EU-12 EU-15 EU-25 EU-27
➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Export subsidies Market support
Direct aids Rural development

13. EU Budget, 2007-2013
Admin
Jobs, growth, 6%
security, justice,
foreign policy,
overseas aid, Farm
43%
climate, energy, 51% subsidies
environment,
R&D, science &
innovation...

14. Government support to farming,
€ billions
60 55
45
30
15 12
? ?
0
CAP National Regional Tax breaks
& local

15. Three BIG problems with the CAP:
1. It’s Expensive
2. It’s Untargeted
3. It’s Unequal

16. EU Budget: 2010

17. Photo: NASA

18. Photo: Laura Leon / IHT

21. “...the current system fails
to deliver value for
taxpayers’ money...
...underlying lack of logic... Through
the green
...no link between subsidies smokescreen
received and public goods
delivered.”
How is CAP cross compliance
delivering for biodiversity?
BirdLife International,
November 2009

22. Cross Compliance
aka
“Being Paid For Not Breaking The Law”
“Many, if not all, standards are likely
to have been legal requirements for
some years before cross compliance
was introduced in 2005...
Institute for European Environment Policy, 2007

24. Hope Farm
181 ha arable farm, Cambridgeshire
Annual Costs of Implementing €75
Cross Compliance
Annual Single Farm Payment €27,000

25. Three BIG problems with the CAP:
1. It’s Expensive
2. It’s Untargeted
3. It’s Unequal

26. Top 18% of recipients
get 85% of the money

31. “The payment rates defined in
entitlements vary greatly depending
upon: the historic claims record of the
applicant in the period 2000-02, any
National Reserve award, the volume
of Milk Quota held, and the Tonneage
of Sugar Beet Contract held.”

32. Direct aid, € per hectare, 2013
600
500
400
300
€247
200
100
0
BE BG CZ DK DE EE IE EL ES FR IT CY LV LT LU HU MT NL AT PL PT RO SI SK FI SE UK

33. Direct aid, € per farm worker, 2013
14,000
12,000
€10,409
10,000
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
0
BE BG CZ DK DE EE IE EL ES FR IT CY LV LT LU HU MT NL AT PL PT RO SI SK FI SE UK

34. Rural development spend, € per hectare, 2013
250 1,032
200
150
100
50
€17
0
BE BG CZ DK DE EE IE EL ES FR IT CY LV LT LU HU MT NL AT PL PT RO SI SK FI SE UK

35. How to spend it
- Ecological farming:
uplands, organic farms,
marginal land...
- Invest in knowledge and
skills: resource use,
marketing, diversification
- Measures to address price &
income volatility
- End blanket entitlements

36. Reform is long overdue
but... redistribution is
politically toxic
So where are we heading?

38. - Phase out historic entitlements, but no flat
rate
- More conditionality on area payments
- ‘Public money for public goods’ rhetoric
- Optional price/income volatility measures
- Budget cut up to 30% by 2020
- Co-financing - compulsory, rates vary by
measure and by country

39. Thanks for listening!
Jack Thurston
Co-founder, farmsubsidy.org
jack@farmsubsidy.org