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Bill: Agriculture Bill
Details
Submitted by[?]: League of Social Reformation
Status[?]: passed
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: July 2071
Description[?]:
| The Social Reform party advocates these changes to our agricultural policy to encourage price stability, ensure farmer incomes and maintain continuous supply. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change Government agricultural and farming subsidies policy.
Old value:: The government allows local governments to craft agricultural subsidy policy.
Current: Agricultural crops which are considered beneficial to the enviroment or to the continued ecological safety of the state are subsidized.
Proposed: The government subsidises agriculture based on market demand for the crop being grown.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 12:35:47, June 22, 2005 CET | From | League of Social Reformation | To | Debating the Agriculture Bill |
| Message | This bill will ensure our competivity abroad, maintain stable supplies of food products and ensure some degree of self-sufficiency. |
| Date | 12:46:36, June 22, 2005 CET | From | Conservative Party | To | Debating the Agriculture Bill |
| Message | It will be too expensive for us and farmers respond to market demand anyway, they will grow crops that are profitable and grow well. Why waste money like the EU does? |
| Date | 12:52:09, June 22, 2005 CET | From | League of Social Reformation | To | Debating the Agriculture Bill |
| Message | In the real world, I managed to find a way to solve the problems of the Common Agricultural Policy as I have studied it as part of my A-levels. It would involve placing control of EU intervention prices (money for the EU to buy food from farmers during surplus) to an independent non-governmental entity that is not abused by the farmers unions. Theoretically, the CAP is inexpensive to run. You state that farmers respond to market demand, but what you fail to realise is that Agricultural markets are highly unstable due to crop growth cycles. This is why in Europe, the EU buys up surplus food from farmers (in order to maintain a good income for farmers), stores it and then sells it during times when there is no harvest (theoretically, this prevents consumer prices from rising to high during scarcity). |
| Date | 13:02:36, June 22, 2005 CET | From | Conservative Party | To | Debating the Agriculture Bill |
| Message | However, in europe we rarely have no harvest and as such we have massive food mountains. Butter mountains, wine lakes and grain mountains. We produce too much food and it is because we subsidise the farmers. Due to the CAP food prices on most goods are 40% higher than they need to be. This affects the poor greatly as more of their limited income goes on food. IF we have free trade and no sbusidies then if our farmers do not produce enough we can buy it in cheaply from poorer countries. |
| Date | 13:10:24, June 22, 2005 CET | From | League of Social Reformation | To | Debating the Agriculture Bill |
| Message | The reason for the lakes and mountains is irrelevent with my solutions. Because the farmers unions demanded higher intervention prices, they produced more in order to recieve more. With the changes in place, the non-governmental entity would lower intervention prices to discourage overproduction. While consumers pay slightly more, it is at least stable. In the event that prices become too high, more food can be produced and released onto the market to devalue the price. In your last point, you fail to realise that by opening up our agricultural markets to free trade and cheaper foriegn food, you would destroy our own agriculture market because they are undercut by foriegn competitor, forcing them out of business. |
| Date | 13:22:47, June 22, 2005 CET | From | Conservative Party | To | Debating the Agriculture Bill |
| Message | If they cannot compete with foreign rivals then so be it. I would rather efficient farmers stay in business and that i eat foreign food than pay for inefficient overpriced food. |
| Date | 13:24:23, June 22, 2005 CET | From | League of Social Reformation | To | Debating the Agriculture Bill |
| Message | I am taking this to voting. I will probably win anyway. |
| Date | 19:53:25, June 22, 2005 CET | From | Groep Hooyer, Socialist Party of Kanjor | To | Debating the Agriculture Bill |
| Message | i would say its stupid to let farmers grow something whats has to be subsidies, let them find an other job |
| Date | 17:09:46, June 23, 2005 CET | From | Groep Hooyer, Socialist Party of Kanjor | To | Debating the Agriculture Bill |
| Message | Why should we pay money to farmers? |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | |||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 54 | |||||
| no | Total Seats: 35 | |||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 11 |
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