THERE is a potential problem if prices paid to farmers are low while food prices in the shops are high, European Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has warned.

IRISH farmers would need the entire €280 million aid package on offer to EU dairy farmers this year to bring them back to profit, not the €11m they stand to receive, according to a farmers’ representative.

PEOPLE interested in the future of farming have been urged by EU commissioner for agriculture Mariann Fischer Boel to look at the area of risk management.

FARMER protests are set to escalate across Europe, after the only decision taken by agriculture ministers in Brussels, was to give a panel of experts nine months to report back on the dairy crisis.

EUROPEAN farmers angry over a collapse in milk prices threw eggs, burned tyres and hay and poured milk onto the streets of Brussels yesterday.

AN initiative by the Swedish presidency of the European Union to set up a special farm council meeting on October 5 to discuss the dairy crisis was welcomed yesterday.

SUPPORT to help the European dairy sector through the current crisis is already bearing fruit.

EUROPEAN agriculture and rural development commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, who has announced she will not seek a second term in the office, declared yesterday it was not an easy decision.

SUGGESTIONS from French and German ministers that milk quotas should be managed at individual producer level on a compulsory basis in every member state was described as totally unacceptable yesterday by the Irish Farmers Association.

A TWO-DAY meeting of 35 trade ministers of the WTO-member countries began in New Delhi yesterday amid tight security.

AFTER the August break, it was back to work in Brussels yesterday “batteries fully charged and sleeves rolled up” for European Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.

THE European Union wants national competition authorities to investigate why huge drops in the prices paid to farmers for milk, butter and cheese are not being passed on to consumers.

A new European Commission report out today has rejected farmers’ demands to impose tougher milk production quotas.

THE dairy sector is heading for disaster if milk prices stay at their current historically low level, European agriculture and rural development commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has admitted.

EU shop prices for milk jumped 17% from mid-2007 to mid-2008, and have fallen back only 2% since – even though the milk price paid to farmers has halved.

EUROPEAN heads of government want proposals brought forward to stabilise dairy incomes within two months.

EUROPEAN agriculture ministers were urged yesterday to take further urgent action to address the severe market crisis in the dairy sector.

THE European Commission has been told by Irish Farmers Association president Padraig Walshe that it needs to take more creative action to support the dairy sector.

THE quality and diversity of European food and drink is being promoted in China this week by Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.

FARMING not only contributes to climate change but will also be very seriously affected by it, according to European Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.

INSTANT brand recognition is crucial in a world where consumers are making up their minds in split seconds, according to European agriculture and rural development commissioner Marian Fischer Boel.

IRELAND will publish the list of beneficiaries of EU Common Agricultural Policy payments this week.

FOOD prices seem rather out of touch with the reality at the end of the food chain, European Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has noted.

AN emergency meeting of the Irish Dairy Forum to address the crisis in the industry is being sought by the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association.

THE Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association yesterday described as “unbelievably smug and out-of-touch” comments made by European Union Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel on its dairy policy and the collapse in milk prices.

THE European Union must not overreact or under-react to the current weakness of the dairy market, according toFarm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.

EUROPEAN “rural” development policy absorbed into regional policy would probably no longer be “rural“, according to EU Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.

EUROPEAN agriculture will feel the full force of climate change, Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has warned.

THE European Commission has rejected calls led by France, Germany and eastern Europe to revise plans to phase out milk quotas. “I am not going to reopen the agreement,” said Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel at this week’s meeting of EU farm ministers in Brussels.

A PROGRESS report by the European Commission in Brussels yesterday claims that enormous progress has been made in simplifying the Common Agricultural Policy.

YOUNG farmers are the future of European food production, Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel declared after a visit to Flanders.

GREATER levels of European Union support for the dairy sector were sought by Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith when he met with Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel in Brussels.

A SENIOR official from the European Commission will visit Ireland next week to discuss the troubled milk sector with producers and processors.

CONTINUED concern for the current state of the dairy market was again conveyed to European Union Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel this week by Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith.

EUROPEAN organic farmers have been feeling the pressure as agricultural prices have gone up and down like a rollercoaster.

A DAIRY industry summit is to be held in the Horse and Jockey, Co Tipperary, on Thursday, February 19, to decide the priorities for Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith to pursue in Brussels in order to secure urgent European Union market supports.

THE food wasted in France could feed the under-nourished in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the amount discarded in Italy could put an end to hunger in Ethiopia, according to a new report on the ethics of modern development in agricultural technologies.

FARM prices will recover and fluctuate around levels below recent peaks, but higher than in recent years, European agriculture and rural development commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has predicted.

THERE is a very strong public reluctance to use cloning in the food chain, according to European Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.

THE severity of the fall in milk prices over recent months has surprised many, according to European Union Farm Commissioner Marian Fischer Boel.

CLIMATE change is still one of the gravest long- term threats and could land a hammer blow on agricultural production in parts of Europe and the rest of the world, European Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel warned in Stockholm yesterday.

A STRONG couple who should stay together under the same policy roof was how European Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel described agriculture and rural development at a conference in Cyprus.

A €1 BILLION boost is on the way for the country’s farmers, Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith announced at the National Ploughing Championships in Cuffesgrange, Co Kilkenny.

THE European Union may decide to change direction to some extent, but there is no need for completely rewriting the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).