EU to spend money to buy peace from dairy farmers
As the global recession hurts demand everywhere, European dairy farmers have found themselves particularly struggling. They simply couldn’t cover their costs and anger quickly bubbled up to the surface. Belgian, French and German farmers dumped thousands of tons of milk they couldn’t sell on fields and did their best to make authorities’ lives a misery. The European Union’s stated intention is to limit price-supporting intervention before 2015, and in future fully expose farmers to markets. But times are tough and dairy farmers are getting $420 million in help (from the 2010 budget). The move comes on top of last month’s decision to allow EU member states to pay each farmer up to €15,000 in temporary aid. One question still remains: How long before the EU gets sued in front of the WTO for uncompetitive behaviour? Read more: BBC, Farmers Weekly UK
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