Saturday, June 06, 2009

SFP to stay - Fischer Boel

Farm commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel expects Single Farm Payment (SFP) to stay after 2013. 'I believe that some kind of basic income safety net will be needed,' she told an informal farm council meeting in the Czech Republic. Why that cannot be provided by the social security system was not explained.

However, SFPs should be linked to the delivery of public goods 'to avoid further intensification and industrialisation of farming which could entail serious environmental, economic and social consequences.'

She also made it clear that payments should no longer be made on an historic basis. Her view is that there is no sense in two neighbouring farmers getting widely different levels of payment on the basis of what they were doing ten years ago.

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