Milk

Can this be for real, part 1:

A brief piece on page 183 of the latest D+C, a publication from Germany's Development and Cooperation agency caught my eye. Reporting on the first meeting of G8 agriculture ministers, last April, it noted the disappointment of civil-society organizations.¹ “Whilst it is positive that the G8 is considering the food crisis in the midst of the financial crisis,” the article noted, “it had once again missed an opportunity to review its own policies.”

How so?

“The European Union recently reintroduced export subsidies for milk. EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel defends subsidies for milk exports to Africa by claiming there are few dairy farmers there who could be affected, but this assumption is refuted in a current study by the Food First Information and Action Network (FIAN).² The chair of the United Working Group for Small Farmer Agriculture, a German lobby organization, Friedrich Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf, added: “What’s completely nonsensical is that the EU’s milk surplus is based not on its own feed resources, but on feed imports from third world countries.” The practice in developing countries of cultivating animal feed for export decreases the availability of agricultural land for the production of food.

There’s lots of interest packed in there, not least, how much of it is true and how big is the problem, really.

Can this be for real, part 2:

I had to type all of the above in because alone among the contents of vol 36.2009-5 of D+C, that item does not appear on the InWent web site.

Why not? I think we should be told.