European agriculture in the crucible of the WTO

Capitalism, Nature, Socialism

Volumn 18, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 68-80

  Kuper, Richard ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AGRICULTURAL TRADE; COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY; CURRENCY DEVALUATION; TRADE POLICY; WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION;

EURASIA; EUROPE;

EID: 34547900313     PISSN: 10455752     EISSN: 15483290     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10455750701526351     Document Type: Article

References (19)

1. For a general overview, see Howard Newby, Country Life: A Social History of Rural England (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1987).
2. For 20th-century changes in a wider economic context, see Sidney Pollard, The Development of the British Economy, 1914-1990, 4th ed. (London: Edward Arnold, 1992), passim.
3. This paragraph draws on Lowe, et al., "Countryside Conflicts," 1986, cited in Tracey Clunies-Ross and Nicholas Hildyard, The Politics of Industrial Agriculture (London: Earthscan, 1992), p. 44.
4. Originally called the European Economic Community (EEC), it was transformed first into the European Community (EC), and then, following the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, into the European Union (EU). It is now generally referred to as the EU with a number after, signifying the number of member states at the time of reference, e.g. the EU-6 at the time of its foundation, the EU-9 after the first enlargement in 1973, etc.
5. Wyn Grant, The Common Agricultural Policy (Basingstoke: Macmillan 1997), p. 86.
6. Ibid.
7. See http://www.euractiv.com/en/cap/3-euro-farm-subsidies-misspent/ article-129612 or Wyn Grant's CAP page, "t3.1bn Fraud Bill," September 26, 2004, online at: http://wyngrant.tripod.com/WynGrant CAPpage.html.
8. "CAP Reform - A Long-term Perspective for Sustainable Agriculture," European Commission website, June 26, 2003, see: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/capreform/index_en.htm.
9. For details of this "second revolution in agriculture," see Ted Benton's contribution in this issue, Ted Benton, "The Rural-Urban Division in U.K. Politics, Capitalism Nature Socialism, Vol. 18, No. 3, September 2007, pp. 20-43.
10. See Sophia Murphy, "Managing the Invisible Hand: Markets, Farmers and International Trade," Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, April 2002, online at: http://www.tradeobservatory.org/ library.cfm?RefID=25497.
11. See the Oxfam report "Spotlight on Subsidies," January 2004, online at: http://www.maketradefair.com/assets/english/ bp55_subsidies.pdf.
12. Wyn Grant's CAP page, "To Those that Have Shall be Given," n.d., online at: http://wyngrant.tripod.com/WynGrantCAPpage.html (about three-quarters of the way down).
13. See Patrick Herman and Richard Kuper, for the Confédération Paysanne, Food for Thought: Towards a Future for Farming (London: Pluto Press, 2003).
14. The analysis in this book and that of the Confederation generally draws heavily on the work of French agronomist Jacques Berthelot. See his L'Agriculture: Talon d'Achilles de la mondialisation. Clés pour un accord agricole solidaire à l'OMC (Paris: L'Harmattan, 2001)
15. and more generally his ongoing commentary on WTO and CAP negotiations, in French and English, online at http://solidarite.asso.fr/home/ Agriculture06.php.
16. See Wyn Grant's musing on his blog, under the heading "Is Multifunctionality for Real?" June 6, 2004, online at: http://wyngrant.tripod.com/WynGrantCAPpage.html. He writes: "Last week I was involved in the examination of a very interesting PhD at the University of Southern Denmark concerned with the institutionalization of the discourse of organic farming in the EU. This led me to think about how far multifunctionality in general, and organic farming in particular, is a form of window dressing that promotes an acceptable face for the CAP while intensive forms of farming continue in the background ⋯"
17. David Kelch & Mary Anne Normile, "European Union Adopts Significant Farm Reform," Amber Waves, September 2004, online at: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Amberwaves/september04/Features/ europeanunion.htm.
18. See Dan Rigby and Sophie Bown's contribution in this issue. Rigby and Bown, "Whatever Happened to Organic? Food, Nature and the Market for 'Sustainable' Food," Capitalism Nature Socialism, Vol. 18, No. 3, September 2007, pp. 81-102.
19. Once again, the French Confé dération Paysanne has been in the forefront of this. See especially Appendix I: l'Agriculture Paysanne: A Charter for Small Farming in Herman and Kuper, op. cit.