EU farmers are protesting...

[Hairless Kitten II]

Yes, here they are again: this time the farmers are protesting for the low milk prices.

And what is their reaction? Dumping the milk on their fields, on the streets and in ponds. Last Monday 80.000 farmers destroyed 25,000,000 litres milk.

In Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, more than a tonne of fish died because these marvellous farmers dumped truckloads of milk in a pond.



Article:
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20090921-22059.html

In Belgium and France they are dumping it on the fields and rivers.





Video:
http://current.com/items/90947231_milk- ... -video.htm

I'm sick of those guys, they always ask money, money, money. 48% of the entire EU budget is going to them, 48% or 55 billion Euro!
In an other kind of business, if it is not making profit then it will collapse, there's no room for losers.

Not alone is it costing us a lot of money, it's also a slap in the face of third world countries and this on several issues:

* We are wasting food, by dumping it and they are hungry!
* If we would stop subsidising our farmers, then most third world countries could easily compete with their agriculture products.
* If we would stop subsidising our farmers, then most third world countries could easily feed themselves

This is not an EU problem alone, in USA, the leading capitalist country, you have the same mess: while some, sorry, very dumb people are protesting against a cheap healthcare insurance for all, that same government is subsidising countless amounts of money (average of $16 billion/year) to their farmers.

When will the non-farmers hit the street to demand an end of all this? Why I never hear cry the ultra rightwingers about this kind of 'socialism'?

Wiki Link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy

Other Links:
http://www.rwandagateway.org/article.ph ... ticle=7427
http://www.rand.org/commentary/2002/06/18/WSJ.html
http://www.freetrade.org/node/493
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... refer=home

[NotRust]

* If we would stop subsidising our farmers, then most third world countries could easily feed themselves?

Sorry, how do you figure that?

[Industrial Enigmatics]

I despise European Continental buissnesses, most of the contributions Britain makes to the EU goes to supporting these ungrateful free loaders! Let Britain leave the EU and let them whither on the vine! Britains export industry might actually be viable again then!!!

[Hairless Kitten II]

* If we would stop subsidising our farmers, then most third world countries could easily feed themselves?

Sorry, how do you figure that?

It's a sick system. With the left hand we (USA & EU) are blocking our food markets for them, with the right hand we subsidise our farmers. They produce too much and those food hills are exported to the third world at dump prices. This is disturbing the local economy in those countries and their farmers can't compete with US & EU subsidised food products: the result is they go broke and aren't capable anymore of feeding themselves.

[Hairless Kitten II]

I despise European Continental buissnesses, most of the contributions Britain makes to the EU goes to supporting these ungrateful free loaders! Let Britain leave the EU and let them whither on the vine! Britains export industry might actually be viable again then!!!

I hope you are aware that UK farmers also get big money from the EU...

[Alsatian Knights]

I think they should be fined for destroying a National Resource.

[Classical Liberal]

Why do you guys always drag the US under in some form of cashing when it's something YOUR people are doing or YOUR screw up?

[Cabra West]

If it wasn't so sad, I would really be laughing... really.
So they're producing so much milk that they can pour it away in ponds and on fields, and then they wonder why people are paying less and less for it?

Produce less, you eejits!

Take a leaf from De Beer's books.

[Hairless Kitten II]

Why do you guys always drag the US under in some form of cashing when it's something YOUR people are doing or YOUR screw up?

The blame is not for USA or EU but both, sir. Both sides of the oceans do exactly the same: oversubsidising their farmers.

Why do you go in denial?

The U.S. Agricultural Department is required by law (various U.S. farm bills which are passed every few years) to subsidize over two dozen commodities. Between 1996 and 2002, an average of $16 billion/year was paid by programs authorized by various U.S. farm bills dating back to the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, the Agricultural Act of 1949, and the Commodity Credit Corporation (created in 1933), among others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultur ... ted_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultur ... ted_States

[Sgt Poke-A-Man]

In an other kind of business, if it is not making profit then it will collapse be bailed out, there's no room for losers.

More or less. I think there'd be a lot more protesting, though, if they were allowed to scale back milk production, since consumers would demand the price of milk be lowered...

[Classical Liberal]

Why do you guys always drag the US under in some form of cashing when it's something YOUR people are doing or YOUR screw up?

The blame is not for USA or EU but both, sir. Both sides of the oceans do exactly the same: oversubsidising their farmers.

Why do you go in denial?

I'm not, I don't agree with subsidizing (And I don't include tax-breaks in this, because it's NOT subsidiarity), I'm just saying take responsibility for this action without also dragging in the US.

[Hairless Kitten II]

In an other kind of business, if it is not making profit then it will collapse be bailed out, there's no room for losers.

More or less. I think there'd be a lot more protesting, though, if they were allowed to scale back milk production, since consumers would demand the price of milk be lowered...

We could import cheap milk from the third world...

[NotRust]

In an other kind of business, if it is not making profit then it will collapse be bailed out, there's no room for losers.

More or less. I think there'd be a lot more protesting, though, if they were allowed to scale back milk production, since consumers would demand the price of milk be lowered...

We could import cheap milk from the third world...

And end up being poisoned? No thanks.

[Hairless Kitten II]

Why do you guys always drag the US under in some form of cashing when it's something YOUR people are doing or YOUR screw up?

The blame is not for USA or EU but both, sir. Both sides of the oceans do exactly the same: oversubsidising their farmers.

Why do you go in denial?

I'm not, I don't agree with subsidizing (And I don't include tax-breaks in this, because it's NOT subsidiarity), I'm just saying take responsibility for this action without also dragging in the US.

Stop moaning man. 90% of the OP is about EU farmers. I just wanted to make clear that US is having the same farmers-subsidy disease. You can't expect that everyone is aware about that fact.

[Sgt Poke-A-Man]

In an other kind of business, if it is not making profit then it will collapse be bailed out, there's no room for losers.

More or less. I think there'd be a lot more protesting, though, if they were allowed to scale back milk production, since consumers would demand the price of milk be lowered...

We could import cheap milk from the third world...

Then you hit the problem of "Oh em gee, these third world countries, their food is tainted and unsellable! We should only buy *insert country's name here* milk because it comes from our own farms!"

If Americans knew a drop of Chinese milk was coming ashore, with the melamine scare and whatnot, health care would take a back seat to thousands of mothers marching on Washington, babies in hand, damning foreign milks and demanding tariffs be put on them.

[Hairless Kitten II]

In an other kind of business, if it is not making profit then it will collapse be bailed out, there's no room for losers.

More or less. I think there'd be a lot more protesting, though, if they were allowed to scale back milk production, since consumers would demand the price of milk be lowered...

We could import cheap milk from the third world...

And end up being poisoned? No thanks.

Oh? They can't produce milk? Their cows are poisoned?

[Risottia]

Yes, here they are again: this time the farmers are protesting for the low milk prices.

Actually the protesting farmers here in Italy were quite keen on pointing out the huge difference between what they get for milk (about 0.45 €/litre) and what the consumer pays (about 1.20 €/litre).

And what is their reaction? Dumping the milk on their fields, on the streets and in ponds.

As long as it's their fields... but streets and ponds are a definite nyet.

I'm sick of those guys, they always ask money, money, money. 48% of the entire EU budget is going to them, 48%!

Land owners asking for more public subsidies... just like industries asking for more public subsidies... and water is still wet.
And then they vote for the right-wing parties, . They want socialism, but only for themselves!

* We are wasting food, by dumping it and they are hungry!

Yep. Still I don't know if it's feasible to send our surplus there - and also it would make a poor incentive to the growth of local farming.

* If we would stop subsidising our farmers, then most third world countries could easily compete with their agriculture products.

No. Because they produce quite different things. Have you ever tried growing apples in Rwanda, or rice in Chad?

* If we would stop subsidising our farmers, then most third world countries could easily feed themselves

How? They would be selling to the EU most of their crops, so they would still have nothing to eat.

[Hairless Kitten II]

In an other kind of business, if it is not making profit then it will collapse be bailed out, there's no room for losers.

More or less. I think there'd be a lot more protesting, though, if they were allowed to scale back milk production, since consumers would demand the price of milk be lowered...

We could import cheap milk from the third world...

Then you hit the problem of "Oh em gee, these third world countries, their food is tainted and unsellable! We should only buy *insert country's name here* milk because it comes from our own farms!"

If Americans knew a drop of Chinese milk was coming ashore, with the melamine scare and whatnot, health care would take a back seat to thousands of mothers marching on Washington, babies in hand, damning foreign milks and demanding tariffs be put on them.

Actually I already buy third world food. Once in a month I do my food shopping in Oxfam stores. Yes, they are a little more expensive. And no, I never had 'bad' food.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxfam
http://www.oww.be/homepage.html

[Sgt Poke-A-Man]

In an other kind of business, if it is not making profit then it will collapse be bailed out, there's no room for losers.

More or less. I think there'd be a lot more protesting, though, if they were allowed to scale back milk production, since consumers would demand the price of milk be lowered...

We could import cheap milk from the third world...

And end up being poisoned? No thanks.

Oh? They can't produce milk? Their cows are poisoned?

They don't come from California.

[NotRust]

In an other kind of business, if it is not making profit then it will collapse be bailed out, there's no room for losers.

More or less. I think there'd be a lot more protesting, though, if they were allowed to scale back milk production, since consumers would demand the price of milk be lowered...

We could import cheap milk from the third world...

And end up being poisoned? No thanks.

Oh? They can't produce milk? Their cows are poisoned?

Have you seen how many food tainting scandals have come out of China recently?

[Hairless Kitten II]

In an other kind of business, if it is not making profit then it will collapse be bailed out, there's no room for losers.

More or less. I think there'd be a lot more protesting, though, if they were allowed to scale back milk production, since consumers would demand the price of milk be lowered...

We could import cheap milk from the third world...

And end up being poisoned? No thanks.

Oh? They can't produce milk? Their cows are poisoned?

Have you seen how many food tainting scandals have come out of China recently?

Yes and now ALL third world countries or ALL food from China is ill?

How is it possible that I never was sick of food from the Oxfam stores?

And do you think that Western governments would allow that Oxfam is selling bad food?

Oh ever heard of BSE or the mad cow disease? That started in England...
Or think about the Ethylene glycol the Italians inserted in their wines back in the 80ties...
Or the countless hormone scandals in my country in the 90ties...

[Risottia]

Oh ever heard of BSE or the mad cow disease? That started in England...
Or think about the Ethylene glycol the Italians inserted in their wines back in the 80ties...
Or the countless hormone scandals in my country in the 90ties...

That is why the EU enforces very strict policies and controls on food and beverages now.

Btw: about the Italian wines scam, it was even worse than glycol: it was methanol!
Or shall we speak about the latest Italian cheese scam - with old cheeses gone awry melted into "new" cheese by Galbani (one of the major Italian cheese producers)?
Thanks to the EU normatives (and to dedicated police forces, like the Carabinieri NAS), food is safer, and scams get discovered more quickly than happened in the past.

[Hairless Kitten II]

Yes, here they are again: this time the farmers are protesting for the low milk prices.

Actually the protesting farmers here in Italy were quite keen on pointing out the huge difference between what they get for milk (about 0.45 €/litre) and what the consumer pays (about 1.20 €/litre).

And what is their reaction? Dumping the milk on their fields, on the streets and in ponds.

As long as it's their fields... but streets and ponds are a definite nyet.

I'm sick of those guys, they always ask money, money, money. 48% of the entire EU budget is going to them, 48%!

Land owners asking for more public subsidies... just like industries asking for more public subsidies... and water is still wet.
And then they vote for the right-wing parties, . They want socialism, but only for themselves!

* We are wasting food, by dumping it and they are hungry!

Yep. Still I don't know if it's feasible to send our surplus there - and also it would make a poor incentive to the growth of local farming.

* If we would stop subsidising our farmers, then most third world countries could easily compete with their agriculture products.

No. Because they produce quite different things. Have you ever tried growing apples in Rwanda, or rice in Chad?

* If we would stop subsidising our farmers, then most third world countries could easily feed themselves

How? They would be selling to the EU most of their crops, so they would still have nothing to eat.

Risottia,

Our cheap milk powder that we export to Africa is demolishing the local African economies. Before we did that, they were capable of producing enough milk for their own use.

http://www.rwandagateway.org/article.ph ... ticle=7427

[Risottia]

Risottia,

Our cheap milk powder that we export to Africa is demolishing the local African economies. Before we did that, they were capable of producing enough milk for their own use.

I don't know about the other EU countries, but sure Italy doesn't export any kind of milk. Actually we import it, because the quotas given to Italy are too low even for the Italian consumption of fresh milk... let alone transformed milk (like cheese, butter).

Btw, iirc the almost-monopolist of milk powder is extra-EU (Nestlé, CH).

Anyway, there's also the not-so-minor fact that, since the African countries started importing powdered milk, their population has grown enormously - I doubt that a country whose territory is mostly jungle would be able to produce enough milk for their current population.

[Hairless Kitten II]

Risottia,

Our cheap milk powder that we export to Africa is demolishing the local African economies. Before we did that, they were capable of producing enough milk for their own use.

I don't know about the other EU countries, but sure Italy doesn't export any kind of milk. Actually we import it, because the quotas given to Italy are too low even for the Italian consumption of fresh milk... let alone transformed milk (like cheese, butter).

Btw, iirc the almost-monopolist of milk powder is extra-EU (Nestlé, CH).

Anyway, there's also the not-so-minor fact that, since the African countries started importing powdered milk, their population has grown enormously - I doubt that a country whose territory is mostly jungle would be able to produce enough milk for their current population.

I have more interesting readings about this issue, it's not alone about milk (powder):

http://www.rand.org/commentary/2002/06/18/WSJ.html
http://www.freetrade.org/node/493
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... refer=home