The CAP (important)

Anyway, I just learnt this and I thought it was quite important. If anyone notices any flaws in the argument please point them out, I'm new to this CAP so if you can see I'm not understanding something it would be helpful for me to correct it. Thanks for reading!

FOr people who don't know what this is, I'll try to explain:

The common agricultral policy is a policy by the EU based on protectionism. Taking a look at Britain, our farmers are producing way too much. Instead of putting it all onto the market, which would lower the price and therefore farmer's "wages", the farmers use their political influence to make the government buy these excess crops, effectively giving them minimum prices for their crops.

Why this is bad? Well take one look at the huge food stockpiles. The government, having bought all these crops has nothing to do with them but put them in warehouses - great if the country is heading into war and is looking to become self sufficient with buffer stocks, but that's not our situation. THe government can't put them on the market or give them away because the rise in supply would destroy farmer's incomes and be against the CAP. So while we have huge food piles in the UK, people are starving in the third world. And this is where the problem with the CAP is.

Farmers in the third world are accepted to be better at growing the same crops due to better weather conditions. So the world has a finite amount of resources, and the ones being made more efficiently in these countries such as Brasil and some African countries cannot be sold to Europe because of the trade barriers. The EU has quotas limiting the amount of foreign (that is, outside the EU) goods can be bought, which keeps the inefficient European producers' products in high demand and limits consumer choice, one of the so called most important points of the capitalist economy. The consumer is paying high prices for these goods because they cannot be imported at cheap rates, and then paying high taxes to subsidise farmers furthermore by buying their overproduced grain.

So while the hypocrites at the top are claiming to try to be helping third world countries onto their feet through world aid, they are pushing them back down again by refusing to allow market forces allocate the cheapest goods to the people most in demand - instead, we are buying goods at higher prices with higher taxes. And it all comes down to these farmers wanting stable incomes.

Anyway, I just learnt this and I thought it was quite important. If anyone notices any flaws in the argument please point them out, I'm new to this CAP so if you can see I'm not understanding something it would be helpful for me to correct it. Thanks for reading!

I'm not a big fan of the CAP either but the CAP you describe doesn't actually exist anymore. But yea, anyway.

Ah, I forgot that!

It's crazy how this still happens, I'm still looking for a reason. My economics teacher said "because the farmers have power" - how many farmers are there in the country? And why are they protected from the ugly side of capitalism when every other industry isn't? The problem doesn't go away, it just shifts. And in this case it shifts to a much worse problem.

What reforms have been made? I'm interested in learning about them.

BTW, did you know, that the Prince of Wales is one of the biggest recipients of EU CAP-subsidies?

Blaaaaaaame the French!

haha funny that! and exactly how much political power do farmers have?? during foot and mouth, im sure the farmers would have had sth to say then..but were they really listened to? (im just throwing these questions up in the air) .. something should be done with the excess food, like send it abroad to LEDCs for free as aid rather than let it sit in food mountains.. ive heard that new legislation will also dictate that large arable farms (manily in the south) will be getting more subsidies (about 4 times more) than hill farmers, which makes no sense at all!! thoughts please.

something should be done with the excess food, like send it abroad to LEDCs for free as aid rather than let it sit in food mountains..

something should be done with the excess food, like send it abroad to LEDCs for free as aid rather than let it sit in food mountains..

That's been done in the past, but with disastrous results. The problem with giving free food to LEDC, is that you destroy local markets and ultimately ruin local farmers. They have no chance to survive economically against the overwhelming competition of free EU-food!

FOr people who don't know what this is, I'll try to explain:

The common agricultral policy is a policy by the EU based on protectionism. Taking a look at Britain, our farmers are producing way too much. Instead of putting it all onto the market, which would lower the price and therefore farmer's "wages", the farmers use their political influence to make the government buy these excess crops, effectively giving them minimum prices for their crops.

Why this is bad? Well take one look at the huge food stockpiles. The government, having bought all these crops has nothing to do with them but put them in warehouses - great if the country is heading into war and is looking to become self sufficient with buffer stocks, but that's not our situation. THe government can't put them on the market or give them away because the rise in supply would destroy farmer's incomes and be against the CAP. So while we have huge food piles in the UK, people are starving in the third world. And this is where the problem with the CAP is.

Farmers in the third world are accepted to be better at growing the same crops due to better weather conditions. So the world has a finite amount of resources, and the ones being made more efficiently in these countries such as Brasil and some African countries cannot be sold to Europe because of the trade barriers. The EU has quotas limiting the amount of foreign (that is, outside the EU) goods can be bought, which keeps the inefficient European producers' products in high demand and limits consumer choice, one of the so called most important points of the capitalist economy. The consumer is paying high prices for these goods because they cannot be imported at cheap rates, and then paying high taxes to subsidise farmers furthermore by buying their overproduced grain.

So while the hypocrites at the top are claiming to try to be helping third world countries onto their feet through world aid, they are pushing them back down again by refusing to allow market forces allocate the cheapest goods to the people most in demand - instead, we are buying goods at higher prices with higher taxes. And it all comes down to these farmers wanting stable incomes.

Anyway, I just learnt this and I thought it was quite important. If anyone notices any flaws in the argument please point them out, I'm new to this CAP so if you can see I'm not understanding something it would be helpful for me to correct it. Thanks for reading!

FOr people who don't know what this is, I'll try to explain:

The common agricultral policy is a policy by the EU based on protectionism. Taking a look at Britain, our farmers are producing way too much. Instead of putting it all onto the market, which would lower the price and therefore farmer's "wages", the farmers use their political influence to make the government buy these excess crops, effectively giving them minimum prices for their crops.

Why this is bad? Well take one look at the huge food stockpiles. The government, having bought all these crops has nothing to do with them but put them in warehouses - great if the country is heading into war and is looking to become self sufficient with buffer stocks, but that's not our situation. THe government can't put them on the market or give them away because the rise in supply would destroy farmer's incomes and be against the CAP. So while we have huge food piles in the UK, people are starving in the third world. And this is where the problem with the CAP is.

Farmers in the third world are accepted to be better at growing the same crops due to better weather conditions. So the world has a finite amount of resources, and the ones being made more efficiently in these countries such as Brasil and some African countries cannot be sold to Europe because of the trade barriers. The EU has quotas limiting the amount of foreign (that is, outside the EU) goods can be bought, which keeps the inefficient European producers' products in high demand and limits consumer choice, one of the so called most important points of the capitalist economy. The consumer is paying high prices for these goods because they cannot be imported at cheap rates, and then paying high taxes to subsidise farmers furthermore by buying their overproduced grain.

So while the hypocrites at the top are claiming to try to be helping third world countries onto their feet through world aid, they are pushing them back down again by refusing to allow market forces allocate the cheapest goods to the people most in demand - instead, we are buying goods at higher prices with higher taxes. And it all comes down to these farmers wanting stable incomes.

Anyway, I just learnt this and I thought it was quite important. If anyone notices any flaws in the argument please point them out, I'm new to this CAP so if you can see I'm not understanding something it would be helpful for me to correct it. Thanks for reading!