Billionaires Received U.S. Farm Subsidies, Report Finds.

[Divernan]

14. Your argument is insultingly simplistic & flat wrong. The European Union is getting it right.

The EU's recent reforms to its farm subsidy program include features like:
(1) Farmers under 40 years old will get extra subsidies;
(2) 30 percent of EU members' farm payments will also be spent on "green" measures like crop diversification, maintaining grassland and creating ecological areas;
(3) favors young farmers and smallholders over big business;
(4) give farmers' organizations a greater role in helping farmers cope with market volatility;
(5) lets the markets play their role but also gives farmers a chance to play their role.

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/agriculture-farm.phk

A reform of EU farm subsidies agreed this week will favour young farmers and smallholders over big business as well as more eco-friendly farming in a "paradigm shift" for Europe, a top official said on Thursday after three months of talks.

"We wanted to have a fairer and more economical Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), as well as one that is more in touch with the modern world," the EU's Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos told reporters in Brussels.

"This is the start of a paradigm shift for the CAP," he said.

Paolo De Castro, head of the Parliament's farm committee, said the deal was "a victory for EU farmers and consumers". Fellow European lawmaker Luis Manuel Capoulas Santos said it signalled the end of a "dependency culture" for farm subsidies.