Following an article on the Workers Party of Britain outlining the EU Commission’s attack on Dutch farmers, we reproduce articles from Labour Affairs dealing with the EU Milk Quotas. The Commission decided to put an end to them in 2008, to take effect by 2015.
The UK was delighted: at last the UK milk industry would be able to prevail on the market.
The downside was that smaller farmers were driven out of the industry because they could not compete with the economies of scale achieved by the bigger plants. The other consequence was that limits on the production of milk were withdrawn.
The EU now wants to reduce milk production, to mitigate global warming. (Not to reduce the use of pesticides and herbicides, or the use of antibiotics or artificial fertilisers.) They fail to convince the public that reducing milk production will mitigate global warming. And they fail to rein in production by interfering with the market, i.e. by reintroducing milk quotas.
The Commission’s only option is what amounts to compulsory purchase of farms.
Froggy October 2009 The beginning of the end for milk quotas
Labour Affairs 