From our property here in south-west France we can see a very wide range of types of agriculture: sunflowers and wheat, nut trees and a vineyard, plum orchards, a field of cows and open meadows among them.
This small scale agriculture is a part of what gives France its beauty and part of the reason why so many people, both from abroad and within France, love to visit the French countryside. Farming in France is also held in very high regard by the population as a whole, because even many city-dwellers come originally from the countryside and consider their family roots to be in farming.
However, as everyone knows farming is in crisis across Europe and perhaps nowhere more so than in France (although the problems are not restricted to France – it’s a Europe problem as much as a French problem).
Anyway, there were some extraordinary figures about French farming published in this week’s Time magazine that I thought I would repeat here to highlight the plight:
- French farmers receive 20% of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding. This amounts to 42 billion euros a year (or a cost of about 2000 euros for every single working person in France)
- EU aid represents more than 90% of the average French farm income
It has been before said that the vast majority of this aid goes to the large-scale farmers around Paris and the centre of France and very little to the small farmers who are struggling to make ends meet, but I don’t know how true that is.
It is also important to note that the farmers we know around here are far from sittting back enjoying the good life because of the grants they receive – indeed, many farms are expected to be forced to close (as over 1 million already have in France over the last 40 years). Due to cheap imports from outside Europe the average farm income in France fell more than 50% over the last two years – a situation that is hardly expected to improve dramatically any time soon.
One ‘lifeline’ that is being encouraged by the French government comes from encouraging farmers to focus more on ‘premium products’ – top quality cheeses, high quality meat products, asparagus direct from the farm, home-pressed and seasoned olive oils etc, using biologically sound methods, rather than trying unsuccessfully to compete with the wheat fields of the Ukraine. In effect, trying to restore France’s reputation as the supplier of some of the best foods in the world.
Could this approach work for French farming as a whole I wonder, or just for a small handful of farmers? Or is there a better solution that will stop France needing to dig out all its hedgerows and turning the whole country into one giant field of maize?
Stats are available on the money paid out to French farmers, and as you suspect its the big boys who do best out of it, more here:
http://agriculture.gouv.fr/les-beneficiaires-des-aides-de-la
And the piece in Time magazine is available online if people can’t get a copy, it’s here:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2005777,00.html
There was a website showing just who got what…I haven’t seen it this year and now can’t find the reference.
As far as my commune was concerned, it was most revealing and roughly confirmed what everyone thought….that there seemed to be a lot of money for relatively little activity..
Thanks for those links Craig,
I didn’t realise the articles were also available online (wonder why I’m paying for a magazine?)
The CAP is ruining the EU. It costs far too much and of course France has the most to loose. The ammount needs to be reduced and farms need to be much more cost effective, so I am afraid it has to be less smaller and more larger farms. You cannot compete in an advancing time by keeping farms as museum pieces. The smaller quality farms will survive if the are producing top quality products. as France has recieved the most from the CAP it will need to face up to greater change. Few of the very small farms have survived in Norfolk, but grants are linked in part to how the countryside of the farm is managed. So we are now having an increase in hedgerows and there are miles and miles of newly planted onee in my part of norfolk. Also the uncultivated margines of fields have increased to allow the wild flowers to returnn and other wildlife. So it can be managed to minimise the change of look of the countryside.Farming needs to be far more responsive to supply and demand to survive and grow.
That is an alarming statistic and a sad outcome. I always thought France was somehow much further ahead as far as fair agriculture practices and local produce. I think that focusing on the quality products helps but I’m not sure it’s a solution to the problem. I think it’s going to become a survival of the fittest.
I’ve seen several small farm accounts and this line is so far from the truth for those farms: “EU aid represents more than 90% of the average French farm income”
Can you point to the original data?
Hi, figures quoted came from Time magazine, Craig has given the link above.
I would guess they are comparing total grants paid out in France with total net income reported by farmers. So for example if a farmer has income from sales 50k, income from grants 50k, total costs of 40k they will have net ‘farm income’ of 60k – so grants as a percentage of income would give a figure of 83% (50k / 60k) – a different and higher result than if you just say income from grants / total income. Just my guess though, but I had also thought the figure looked high so gave it some thought when I wrote the article…
Cheers.
20% of CAP funding for 25% of EU agricultural production looks like a pretty fair arrangement to me. And the fires in Russia that have destroyed one fifth of the grain crop in what is now the world’s fourth largest producer should explain to anyone capable of adding up why totally free markets for agriculture are not a bright idea.
For the innumerate, I’d suggest a history of the Irish famine during which Ireland was an exporter of grain…
Hello Boris,
If ‘income’ is defined in the business sense, as net-profit, then good or bad that 90% number is showing how close to the edge a lot of farms run.
For a fair few farms the number would be well over 100%: revenue 40k, costs 50k, subsidy 20k: subsidy is 200% of farm income. Remember that farmer salary comes out of that cost number, too, so a farmer that makes no profit is still paying his own salary and contributing to insurance and supporting related industries.
I ran some interesting articles in Time (e.g. this one: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2005777,00.html) but I did not find the one referenced above.
My problem with lines like this “EU aid represents more than 90% of the average French farm income” is that it doesn’t really tell me anything and it will mislead you if you take ‘income’ to be ‘total income’ and not ‘net-profit’. It misled me.
I’d also like to know how that 90% number is calculated. Is the average weighted by farm revenue or not? It would be cool to see the data broken down into segments based on farm revenue.
Jon in France,
Your ‘free markets’ comment reminded me of A. G. Street’s ‘Farmer’s Glory’ (1931) where the author was complaining how they dropped price floors on farm produce, but didn’t drop wage floors on the cost side. The farming industry responded by dropping employees to stay profitable. On the author’s farm that was 75% of farm employees.