Farm Incomes, Wealth and Agricultural Policy (Perspectives on Europe)

The central aim of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is to support the incomes of farmers. Yet reliable information on the overall incomes of farmers and their households is scarce. Earnings from the non-farm jobs and businesses in which many farmers and their households engage have been ingnored by official measures, as have pensions, investment returns and other forms of income. This book examines the evidence on the total income situation of farm households, much of it only recently available. It shows that, in general, farmers in the EU are not a low income or poor sector of society. Much of the present CAP income support goes to those that are relatively well-off. The findings lend weight to arguments for further reform of the CAP, although change will be opposed by farmers and politicians with vested interests and who resist light being thrown onto the real income situation.