Incomes and Agricultural Policy

Central to the explanation of agriculture&s;s income problems is the tendency for the demand for agricultural products to expand more slowly than does their supply, resulting in a downward pressure on farm prices and on the rewards to be earned from farming. This chapter is concerned with the reaction that governments have made towards the economic pressures on their farmers, as shown in the declared and implied aims of their agricultural policies. There are many examples of conflicts arising between single agricultural policies within countries and between agricultural and non-agricultural ones. The chapter deals with the EU&s;s Common Agricultural Policy and moves to the statements about national policies in the UK and Germany that run alongside the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), finally broadening to a representative group of non-EU countries. When the CAP enhances the prices of farm products, all producers benefit to some extent, the larger ones the most.