Wake up to who really benefits from subsidies

I respectfully wish to remind Mr John Comer of some facts he failed to mention in his article in the Examiner of the 15/6/15.

The EU as we now know it started as consequences of the European Coal and Steel Pact with France and Germany, then we had The Treaty of Rome, and the three pillars of this agreement were the free movement of goods, capital, and labour. The consumers of this country availed of these pillars, often after long court battles as a result of fierce opposition from vested interests.

CAP arrived in an attempt to regulate the agriculture market, and underwent many changes as a result of scandals associated with this subsidy-laden policy, beef mountains, cheese and butter mountains, wine lakes, apple and fruit orchards put to the plough, and many more agriculture disasters all funded by consumers to ensure the producer was protected. This brought the quota system, which saw some farmers/landowners get a guaranteed income for their production and left others without or unable to get access. This was unfair depending on which side of the fence the landowner stood. While this was in operation the environment was damaged due to stocking grants and their associated scandals, all paid for by the consumer. Subsidies will, by their nature, be abused and will all ways require strict supervision (cross compliance) and those who pay (the consumer) are entitled to know where their money is going.