EU farm policy - A chance to grow or moan

NEARLY all the conflicting aspects of our relationship with the European Union can be found one way or another in the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP).

It is one of almost unimaginable complexity, dependency and some considerable confusion about objectives, implementation and value, economic or social. And it has a profound impact on the lives of tens of thousands of Irish people — everyone working in the farm and food sectors.

Farmers depend on it to make ends meet and help them cope with the dispiriting paradox of falling farm incomes despite high prices and growing world demand. This contradiction is made possible by farmers’ feeble bargaining power and a decreasing number of huge, international retailers. Just as we have seen in the financial markets that monopoly, that take-it-or-leave-it power, is self-perpetuating and almost untouchable.