January 21, 2010
European farm ministers this week faced up to one of the most insoluble problems in agricultural economics: how do large numbers of small producers sell to a few large buyers without being ripped off? The major item on the agenda of this week’s Agriculture Council was an examination of the European Union’s food delivery chain… » read more
Posted by Brian Gardner
January 20, 2010
The European Union’s radical post- 2003 farm income support system was designed to have a twofold purpose: the protection of farm incomes and protection of the natural environment. What many expert analysts have long suspected, that it is failing in this second objective, is now becoming abundantly clear. Put simply, it was intended that if… » read more
Posted by Brian Gardner
January 18, 2010
Recent turbulence in world food markets, the threat of climate change and concern about the vulnerability of too many poorer countries to food shortage has produced a plethora of ideas to increase national, EU and world food security. Needless to say, there are fundamental differences, particularly in the EU, on how such improvement should be… » 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.
