Fair trade prevails over the plight of EU farmers

After a long, busy week of uni work, I have finally had the chance to investigate the issue that has been looming over my mind for the past week; Do UK/EU farmers happen to get the same support as fair trade farmers?

Accordingly, after reading a few online articles, it has come to my attention that the EU farmers are indeed in quite a dire situation. The issue seems to be predominant amonst dairy farmers in that they are not getting paid adequately for the premium milk they are producing. In fact, they have been so desperate that they were bold enough to march and protest outside The European Commission in Brussels in 2009.


So, how effective was this? In my opinion, not effective at all.  Fischer Boel, who, at the time of the protests, was European Commissioner of  Agriculture and Rural Development had many things to say. One of the most striking is that she was not afraid to confer with the protestors. Clearly, she is a very bold lady but she is short of good ideas. She proclaimed that it would be possible for member states to pay 70% of the direct payment after October 2009. Whether this has been achieved and how effective it has been is debatable. According to the European Milk Board (EMB) the problem persists not only because of the milk prices being low but also because of the reduction in quotas. This brings to mind another question, how is it that the EU last year had recommended reducing milk production in order to resolve the issue of prices paid not meeting the cost of production?  If memory serves correctly (after studying a module of Economics for Business in my undergraduate degree) , I was of the belief that if supply decreases but demand stays at the same level then that would lead to higher prices? Am I wrong or did I miss the point of the whole module? If I'm right, this is   not what EU dairy farmers need to resolve this issue.

I therefore conclude that, in order to help these struggling farmers the EU should collectively agree on sound economic policies and regulations. Most noteably, the need to revise the quota system.

Ultimately, after carefully reflecting on this topic, I am more convinced than ever that there is something not quite right here. I find it so ironic that countries in the EU especially the UK are increasingly buying fair trade commodities to sell to consumers but in the meanwhile, nothing effective has been put in place to deal with the plight of struggling farmers in their own countries. I find this very hard to make sense of and I am beginning to think that the world we live in works in very mysterious ways...

Thanks for reading! 

P.s Please click on the links below to view the articles I read;


http://www.just-food.com/news/dairy-farmers-could-get-financial-aid_id106724.aspx

and 

http://www.just-food.com/news/early-subsidy-payments-not-enough-dairy-farmers_id106727.aspx