£81millionCAP cheque to British Sugar plc.

[james armstrong]

PRESS RELEASE    For immediate release

Subject. E U Commission forces 
release of  CAP  payment details to giant food and
biofuels  manufacturers

Contact                      James
Armstrong,           The Land is
Ours,         tel 01305 265510          james36armstrong at hotmail.com

STARTS   The largest payout for the
year 2009  under the Common Agricultural
Policy rules goes to British Sugar PLC 
of Peterborough .  For the year 2009 they received a cheque for
over £81million.

This represents  a government handout  of over
four times the  next largest payment- of
nearly £19million to  British registered international
manufacturer, Czarnikow  Group Ltd of
London EC1. 

This compares with the  £581,000 paid
to the Duchy of Cornwall, £417,000 to Richard Drax MP, and  £1.1million to the Queen over 2008/9 for
privately owning Sandringham Estates.

Under the rules of the  recipients of
EU,  beneficiaries have to agree to details of payments being published The total
payouts under the schemes  for the year  2009 were a record £3.4billion.

The EU ruling reveals for the first time the annual increase in
payments.  The 2009 total  showed a growth of  23% over 
2008. 

In 2007 British Sugar PLC in co-operation with ABF (Associated British
Foods) and international chemical giant Monsanto built a £200 million bio-fuels
plant at Wissington in Norfolk.  

Sugar beet,wheat and soya are  grown
as  raw materials for the production of
bio-ethanol. 

World wheat prices increased in 2009 to record levels, partly due to the new
demand for wheat as an alternative 
ingredient in the making of bio-fuels.     

The Government minister supervising both 
CAP payments in UK
and  responsible for farming and food
supply is Caroline Spelman. .

Ms Spelman’s background at the powerful UK
farming lobby ,N.F.U., where she was from 1981 to 1984 commodity secretary for
sugar beet,  her time as Deputy Director
of the International Confederation of European Beet Growers. and as a former
partner in the  family lobbying firm ,
Spelman, Cormack and Associates,  puts
her in a unique position to advise and influence  the industry. 

As Government minister Ms Spelman supervises 
CAP payments in UK.               ENDS



Notes to Editors

1 CAP payments are disbursed in UK
by  Defra’s Rural Payments Agency.  They are funded by British  taxpayes via the UK
contribution to EU currently some £10bn p.a. 

2  David Cameron, May 2010 , is quoted
as saying,

“Secret corporate lobbying is the next big 
scandal waiting to happen.”

3  Thirty one  beneficiaries of Cap payment sin 2009
each  receiving more than £1million
include : RSPB  Scotland, RSPB England,
Sutton Seeds, Strutt& Parker, Surrey Wildlife Trust and National
Trust.  

4   For details of individual CAP
payments go to  
www.cap-payments.defra.gov.uk

5  biog.   , Caroline Spelman        Born in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, Spelman
attended Herts and Essex High School for Girls (now called The Hertfordshire and Essex
High School), in Warwick Road, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, and
received a BA First Class in European Studies from Queen Mary College, University of London.

She was Sugar
Beet commodity secretary for the National Farmer's Union
from 1981 to 1984. She was deputy director of the International
Confederation of European Beet Growers (officially known as La
Confédération Internationale des Betteraviers Européens – CIBE) in Paris
from 1984–9, then a research fellow for the Centre for European Agricultural
Studies (part of the University of Kent and since 2000 known as the
Centre for European Agri-Environmental Economics) from 1989 to 1993. She
co-owns Spelman, Cormack & Associates, a lobbying firm for the food and
biotechnology industry, with her husband.[3]
Based in Dorridge
(her constituency is in the borough of Solihull)  Source: Wikipedia

 



 		 	   		  
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