Dirty Money Farming

November 3, 2019 12:24 PM

How EU farm subsidies support oligarchs and populists, destroy the environment, and disrupt foreign markets.
posted by blue shadows (2 comments total)

EU farming subsidies are a tragic joke, but unfortunately this will not change with Brexit. The farming lobby here is too powerful and deeply entrenched in the little Britain mindset to be corrected easily. Farmers have been found to be claiming huge sums for 'land' that was in the north sea, and thanks to recent reforms no longer need to be effectively stewarding the land they claim for. Its a scandal that such huge subsidies are paid out whilst we crack down ever harder on standards of living for other recipients of state benefits.
posted by RandomInconsistencies at 3:53 PM on November 3, 2019 [3 favorites]

Thanks for sharing. As an American, I had forgotten about this and instantly brought me back to studying abroad in Dakar in 2007 and learning about this and how this depressed prices such that (at least back then) combined with high tariffs to import into Europe, farmers and any food manufacturers in west Africa (notably those using the CFA) were generally shut out off from European markets.
posted by fizzix at 6:12 PM on November 4, 2019