Use of herbicides on set-aside land.

Abstract

In 1992, the European Union agreed a series of strategies to solve the long-running problem of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). A series of measures had evolved to underpin farming policy by supporting price levels and trading strategies among member countries since the then European Economic Community was set up in 1957. However, price support led to overproduction of many temperate foodstuffs until productivity far exceeded per capita consumption, and export subsidies brought Member States into conflict with other exporting nations selling foodstuffs at world prices.
An increasing CAP budget within the European Union, major conflict over agricultural price support in negotiations over the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and internal disquiet about expensive storage of surplus foodstuffs led to policies of set-aside whereby EC farmers would be paid NOT to produce food on part of their land.