Advisers: end agricultural subsidies
25. feb. 2010 15.55 EnglishIn their yearly report, the economic advisers in the Environmental Economic Council call the billions spent on agricultural subsidies a bad idea.
They argue that the current crisis may actually benefit the viability of the agricultural sector in the long run. Unprofitable farm holdings will just have to die.
The Environmental Economic Council therefore recommends that special rules for the agricultural sector - limiting the acreage and number of farms owned by individual farmers - be abolished.
In order to avoid added strain on the environment resulting from large-scale industrial farming, the agricultural sector's emission of greenhouse gasses should be curbed through a system of taxation.
Translated by Martin Lamberth