February 3, 2017
Britain’s splendid, free-booting, liberal traders, now leading the UK into the economic wild blue yonder, believe that most of the world’s trading nations will be queuing up to sign lots of lovely, lucrative trade deals as the country breaks away from the European Union. They are in for a nasty shock. Most obviously, most of… » read more
Posted by Brian Gardner
January 23, 2017
The apparent enthusiasm of US President Donald Trump for a trade deal with the United Kingdom in its post-Brexit state should be regarded with considerable scepticism. The UK’s Brexiteer enthusiasts, currently suffering from the delusion that every major trading nation in the world is ‘queuing up to strike deals’ with London, should look at the… » read more
Posted by Brian Gardner
January 12, 2017
“Have you gone mad?”, is the most frequent question from mainland European friends on the sore-vexed issue of Britain’s Gadarene flight from Europe. They are of course not questioning my sanity, but that of the thirty-seven per cent of the British electorate who voted on June 23 to leave the European Union. For without a… » read more
Posted by Brian Gardner
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Agriculture & Food, Global Europe, Trade & Industry, UK in Europe |
November 11, 2013
The world is going to need more food to meet the demand from an increase in the world population of at least thirty per cent in the next four decades. Of that there is little doubt. Increased production can only be achieved in one of two ways: either by increasing global farmed area or by… » read more
Posted by Brian Gardner
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Food & Consumers, Sustainable Dev. , dietary change, food supply, GHG emission, sustainable agriculture |
October 23, 2013
The basis of the case against the use of food crops in the production of biofuels is that it raises food prices and leads to environmental degradation in crop exporting third countries. This is the justification for the European Commission’s proposal to limit food crop utilisation in the production of biofuels. The proposal is that… » read more
Posted by Brian Gardner
October 7, 2013
For the benefit of a TV documentary, French journalist Benjamin Carle is attempting to live without the benefit of any product not made in France. It is his and the television company’s response to calls from French politicians to citizens of France to reject foreign made products and to buy only those made in France.… » read more
Posted by Brian Gardner
September 24, 2013
Governments aiming to achieve greater food security are unlikely to achieve it through greater self-sufficiency in food production. In fact, pursuit of self-sufficiency is likely to be a major cause of global food insecurity. The risks of food shortages are likely to be greater if barriers are raised against food imports and there is greater… » read more
Posted by Brian Gardner
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, agricultural policy, CAP Reform, food prices, food security |
September 4, 2013
Farm land prices throughout Europe have increased massively in the last two decades. The most dramatic increase has been in the UK where the price of a hectare of farmland has increased threefold in the last ten years. Critics of the EU’s agricultural and rural policies tend to argue that the cause of this is… » read more
Posted by Brian Gardner
August 28, 2013
The idiocies of the food miles thesis, the idea that every nation should seek self-sufficiency in food production to save the planet from global warming have received a further boost from the UK’s National Farmers Union. In what must rank as one of its most misguided publicity stunts, the Union is urging the British people… » read more
Posted by Brian Gardner
August 8, 2013
Much has been made of the apparent acquisition of large areas of land mainly in Africa, but also in Asia and South America by rich, but land-poor countries as well as international investors, in order to grow food and biofuel crops. According to the headlines, vast tracts of land have been gobbled up at peppercorn… » read more
Posted by Brian Gardner
Commentary on European developments from the perspective of long term professional interest in European and international trade, agriculture and food policy, nurtured over three decades spent in Brussels observing and analysing the development of the CAP.
