city university food thinkers
TRANSCRIPT
Transparency and the food system
Food Thinkers series at City University29 October 2008
Jack Thurston Co-founder, farmsubsidy.org
If Europeans knew how the EU spends €55 billion a year
on farm subsidies...
Would they approve?
Our method
Freedom of information
+Investigative
reporting
Vigorous debate
+Better policy
=
Recipient name Location Amount €
Spó dzielcza Agrofirma Witkowoł Witkowo Pierwsze 4 255 935
Top Farms G ubczyce Spó ka Z.O.Oł ł G ubczyceł 4 064 372
Top Farms Wielkopolska Sp. Z O. O. Piotrowo Pierwsze 3 991 238
Kombinat Rolny Kietrz Sp.Zo.O. Kietrz 3 814 261
Poldanor S.A. Przechlewo 3 798 350
Kom-Rol Kobylniki Spó ka Z O.O.ł Kobylniki 2 221 563
Agro - Skandawa Spó ka Z Ograniczon ł ąOdpowiedzialno ci Agro - Skandawa Sp. Z ś ąO.O.
Aptynty 2 084 845
Rolnyvik Sp. Z O.O. Barciany 1 922 988
Polska Hodowla I Obrót Zwierz tami Sp. Z ęO.O. Szymankowo
Szymankowo 1 808 175
Agri Plus Spó ka Akcyjnał Konarzewo 1 558 059
Poland: Top 10 recipients, 2006 & 2007
Percentage of all direct payments (2006)
Why?
“For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but whosoever hath
not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath.”
Matthew 13:12
Direct payments, € per hectare, 2013
Direct payments, € per hectare, 2013
A flat payment at
at €229 per hectare
Behind the headlines
May 06May 06 May 07May 07 August 08August 08
Value of Value of paymentspayments €33 billion €55 billion €66 billion
Number of Number of paymentspayments
n/a 8.2 million 12.1 million
Number of Number of recipientsrecipients
0.9 million 2.6 million 6.5 million
CountriesCountries 8 18 21
Data obtained - timeline
3.2 million searches since 1 Dec 2005
300 visits per day (up to 1,000)
9 pages per visit
7 minutes per visit
66 per cent new visits
European Transparency Initiative
30 Sept 2008: Rural development aid
30 April 2009: Direct payments
✔ Name
✔Municipality
✔ Amount
✘ Business ID
✘ Geodata
✘ Schemes
That’s 27 websites!(even though the Commission
possesses all the data itself)
“Observes that the Commission's website currently includes links to the databases of the
14 Member States providing information on beneficiaries of common agricultural policy
payments under shared management; regrets however that the information is so diverse and
scattered and of such varying quality that information can hardly be found; calls on the Commission to learn from the very accessible
website www.farmsubsidy.org which works very well and is set up without public funding.”
European Parliament, 19 February 2008
But has it made a difference?
Payment limits
Entitlement approachv.
Programming approach
Predictions?Direct payments (€36+ bn)
will become politically unsustainable
Why?- biggest get most
- historic basis of payment- massive variations in rates
- cross compliance is an illusion- high prices & profits (cereals)
Transparency in the food chain?
‘Supermarket Pastoral’
“a visual encyclopedia that documents the manufacturing processes, labor conditions and environmental impacts
involved in the production of contemporary products”
Transparency
TechnologyMedia
?
