[TheLandIsOurs] sweet janus

[Ram Selva]

On Caroline Spelman :


<http://www.eaem.co.uk/news/new-forum-set-drive-green-economy>

[Syngenta's] Chief Scientist, Mike Bushell, was there with Defra's 
Caroline Spelman.

[...]


[Syngenta] have have carried out a small number of GM crop research 
trials in the UK including research into Genetic Use Restriction 
Technologies (GURTS/traitor technology) and GM wheat.


"perhaps the most successful GM crops company at co-opting the 
sustainable development agenda"

------------------
(a letter of November 2010 from Parliamentary Undersecretary Lord 
Henley to a concerned MP apparently denied any link to lobbying for 
Agricultural Biotechnology, in the past as suggested by the above 
article ... in my observations people in parliament lie through their 
noses, a lot)

Apologies to interject an important pointer on CAP,. Thanks James.

Ram



On Mon, 26 Mar 2012 08:32:50 +0000, james armstrong wrote:
> SWEET JANUS
>                                           CAP:sj
>
> Tate and Lyle received Euros 829,975,239 in payments between
> 1999 and 2011.
>
>
>                                      (farmsubsidies.org)
>
>
> CAP payments in Europe amount to
> Euros 55billion p.a. (farmsubsidy.org)
>
>
>
> CAP payments cost UK
> taxpayers £3.9bn p.a. (2009, includes a fine of £200m for 
> incompetence)
>
>  This is equivalent to
> £180 per UK
> household p.a.
>
> (£390  according to D
> Tel of  9 Jul09 must include UK’s
> EU membership fee)
>
>
>
> After nearly 40 years of operation in U.K.,
> knowledge of CAP in Britain
> is low.
>
> A Eurobarometer poll in 2009 found only 15% of people in Britain
> had heard of CAP and thought they knew what it was. Knowledge of  the
> cost to each household and of the following
> is  likely to be lower still.
>
>
>
> British S ugar Cpn received a CAP cheques for £81million in
> 2009  for UK
> activities.
>
>
>
> Secretary of State for Agriculture is Ms Caroline
> Spelman  ( i/c distributing CAP)
>
> Before becoming Minister Ms Spelman worked over four years
> for NFU as  Secretary to the Sugar-beet Committee.
> (Later setting up her own consultancy business-still operating)
>
>
>
> NFU are a commercial organization who include the largest
> agribusiness interests and whose  50,000
> members are among the larger operators who, it is reasonable to 
> deduce, claim
> an estimated £1billion or more in UK  each year as CAP payments.
>
>
>
> Prior to Britain
> joing EEC in 1973, NFU opened an office in Brussels.
>
> Ex president of the NFU, Lord, Sir Henry Plumb, on  his retirement
> from NFU office.
>
> became a euro MEP.
> This body meets in Strasbourg
> also in Brussels and Amsterdam.
>
>
>
> Lord Plumb became President of the European  Parliament
> President of the Agriculture committee of Euro Parliament and
> President of the Conservative group of  Political parties funded by
> the Euro
> Parliament.                                       From the
> NFU  web site,
>
> “The NFU London Office near to parliament… houses the NFU’s
> parliamentary lobbying operation…NFU performs a crucial role in 
> Brussels
> advising and lobbying the EU Commission and Euro M.P’s”
>
>  Chief among their
> aims will be to ensure bigger CAP cheques for NFU members.
>
> Mr Plumb and NFU had a vital part in designing  and working theCAP
> payments scheme.
>
>  Listeners to BBC
> Radio Four Farming Today will be familiar with contributions from NFU
> particularly
> from their President Mr Peter Kendall
>
> Monopolies are not illegal , except when used against the
> public interest. In U.K.,
> British Sugar and Tate & Lyle  share
> a monopoly of wholesale and retail sugar sales.
>
> After investigation in UK
> by Office of Fair Trading, British Sugar and Tate and Lyle were fined
> by EU Commission  Euros 33 million. for price fixing sugar in
> UK.(Indep.
>
>  14 Oct 1998) see cap-payments.defra.gov.uk  alsofarmsubsidies.org
>  James Armstrong