On Mon, 16 Dec 2002 15:45:05 +0100, Torsten Brinch
wrote:

Now, imagine this, believe it or not, additional funding
has been made available in the EU budget to be put into
the farm end of food-production. The share allotted to
farming in England has been set to £62m/yr.
Who should have it?

Right, it's just not plausible. Grin.

So, back to EU Commissioner Fischlers proposal, to cap the subsidy
per farm to no more than 300,000 Euro (~$300,000) a year:

(Senator Chuck Grassley, February 2002, commenting the capping
provisions of the new US Farm Bill):
"In another David vs. Goliath victory, I successfully fought to cap
farm subsidy payments at no more than $275,000 a year. Currently, they
are virtually unlimited in some cases. And studies showed that 10
percent of the farmers in the United States were receiving 60 percent
of the farm payments from the Federal Treasury. Not only does this
erode public support for the farm program, it also undercuts the
intention of the farm safety net."

(Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, commenting the capping decision):
"There's nothing wrong with operators who want to expand beyond the
size of a family operation, but there is no reason for government
programs to support them beyond that level."