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The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

1. The European Union is responsible for the policy.
2. The CAP was started in 1962.
3. The aims and objectives of the policy included:
a. To make Europe self-reliant in food.
b. To raise food production and yields in Europe.
c. To ensure that farmers had a guaranteed minimum income /
ensure that the agricultural community within Europe has a fair standard of living.
d. To support farmer and the agricultural community with all the
supplies needed for farming.
e. To break the link between grants and subsidies.
f. To diversify the agricultural community.
g. To ensure high standards of animal welfare and environmental
protection.
h. To promote more sustainable ways of farming instead of intensive
farming.
i. Provide safe food to consumers at reasonable prices.
4. A result of the CAP included mountains and lakes of food. This means that as a
result of the CAP there was over-production crops and surplus food and drinks, much
more than needed by the population. Examples included, the milk lake and the beef
mountain which was the overproduction of milk and beef.
5. In 2005, the EU paid out 106.3 billion euros (of which 49.7 billion was for CAP)
6. In 2004, France received the most money (rebate).Other countries that received
money include Spain, Italy, Germany.
7. No country joined the EU in 2005, countries joined the year before and also in
2007, but none in 2005.
8. The farms have increased in size as small unprofitable farms have been merged
into larger farms. Hedgerows have been removed to make larger more profitable fields.
9. As new technology has been introduced to farming, it has resulted in the number
of farm workers declining rapidly as they are not needed anymore.
10. Effects on the environment:
a. Wildlife habitats have been drastically reduced.
b. wildlife itself has been drastically reduced.
11. The EU introduced quotas to reduce the surpluses and get rid of mountains and
lakes of food. In dairy farms, there was a given quota of how much milk they should

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produce. If they produced more, they were fined.
12. Diversification has lead to the increase of Oilseed Rape production as farmers

produce alternative crops for specialist companies to process. Oilseed rape has also
increased in production yields as it is becoming more desirable for food.
13. Set Aside land is land that is taken out of production to reduce food surpluses.
14. Diversification is when a farm branches out from traditional farming by adding
new money making activities such as tourism, forestry, organic farming, etc.
15. 5 different ways to diversify:
a. Tourism.(camping, bed & breakfast, pony trekking).
b. Organic Farming.
c. Sport and recreation enterprises.(golf, cycling, motor cycling).
d. Forestry.
e. Alternative livestock.(deer, fish farming, snails).