June 24, 2010
Recent publication of projections of world food production by the OECD and FAO gave rise to a spate of predictable doom-laden headlines. Unsurprisingly, the tenuous lkinkage between biofuels and hunger figured large in most – as in: “EU biofuels target could starve millions of people”. Closer reading of the following stories however revealed that this… » read more
Posted by Brian Gardner
June 16, 2010
The Doha Round of trade liberalisation negotiations is well and truly stalled. No one is in any doubt about that. What there is doubt about however is: why? Developing country demands for greater farm subsidy reductions by the European Union and other developed countries, lack of access for European goods and services, US demands for… » read more
Posted by Brian Gardner
June 4, 2010
Much official attention and taxpayers money has recently been devoted to the perceived ‘problem’ in the European Union’s dairy farming sector. Incomes are chronically low, it is claimed, and therefore measures must be taken to prop up markets and therefore incomes The real problem is however probably insoluble: the inevitably low incomes of too many… » 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.
