Features
EU policy creates more poor farmers, says Oxfam
The EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is putting many third world farmers out of business. That's the stark message from Colin Roche, the campaigns and advocacy executive of Oxfam Ireland. He wants to see an end to subsidies that support below-cost selling of EU farm products to developing countries. He says there are numerous countries around the world where farmers are losing their livelihoods as a result of unfair competition from the EU and the US.
'Many developing countries still have a predominately agricultural economy,' says Colin. 'It's the only way the people have of making a living. Yet the efforts of their small farmers are undermined by having to compete with imports from the EU which, because of export subsidies, can be sold below cost.'
The importance of agriculture to developing countries becomes clear when you consider that four out of every five people in Tanzania make their living from the land. Aid agencies like Oxfam and many others are involved in many worthy projects there to help improve the lifestyle of local farmers. But when the EU floods the market with heavily subsidised products from the EU, local small farmers are unable to compete.'
Small farmers in Namibia provide a another example of the negative effect of EU subsidies. Being close to richer South Africa, they used to have a lucrative market on their doorstep. 'Most of their farmers are very small - some had as few as one or two cows,' explains Colin. 'Then the EU dumped cheaper agricultural goods on the market and their market was gone. Goods that had travelled half way across the world were putting the local farmers out of business.'
The CAP seems all the more illogical in light of the fact that the EU and European aid agencies are committed to assisting the agricultural sectors in developing countries. The Indian dairy industry, for example, has received valuable assistance from the EU. Yet as a result of the overproduction of milk in the EU, the development of that same dairy industry has been damaged by the dumping of EU milk products on the Indian market.
The staggering statistics that flow from the CAP will surprise even the most vocal defenders of EU policy. European citizens are supporting the EU dairy industry to the tune of €16 billion - that's over 2 euro a day per cow, and it's more money than half the world's population gets to live on. That means that European cows have a higher income that the majority of the human population on the planet.
'We would like to see changes in European policy, especially in products such as milk where there is overproduction,' says Colin. 'One suggestion would be to reduce the amount of quota available to dairy farmers.'
Any reduction in quotas would bring a wail of protest from farmers. But how can we justify supporting the production of foodstuffs which we don't need and which we can only get rid of by using taxpayers' money to undercut the prices paid to small farmers in developing countries?
Well aware of the depth of opposition amongst farmers to any reductions in support levels, Colin points out that that the lion's share of EU subsidies goes to the big farmers and agribusiness corporations. Since 1970 the number of farmers in Ireland has halved. 'The Common Agricultural Policy hasn't stopped the flight from the land,' he says. 'The big farmers get the bulk of the subsidies and the small and medium sized farmers are leaving farming.'
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