European Union farmers have long enjoyed more generous subsidies than any other region in the world. Trade negotiators find this frustrating, as do some of the EU countries themselves. In its fifth decade, the agricultural subsidies program is a bedrock of European Union spending, now totaling 55 billion euros ($79 billion), almost half of the group’s budget. The pie chart shows how they split up the largess.
  It amounts to a huge redistribution of income to farm interests from taxpayers. But most farmers get the crumbs because payments are typically based on land size: 80 percent of beneficiaries receive only about 20 percent of the payments. Put another way, the top 20 percent of rural enterprises (they're not all farmers or even agricultural) get 80 percent of the take.
  The current formulas were decided upon in 2005 by French president France, Jacques Chirac and German chancellor Gerhard Schröder behind closed doors. They conspired to protect the subsidies from any cuts until 2013, which left British prime minister Tony Blair hopping mad.
  We're a lot closer now to 2013, and a lot of EU folks are thinking it's time for real reform in ag subsidies. New York Times writers Stephen Castle and Doreen Carvajal were in Brussels recently to report on the issue. You can read their story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/business/global/30subsidy.html?scp=5&sq=farming&st=cse


     What do you think of spreading manure on a frozen, snow-covered field that slopes towards a stream that empties into a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay? Not a good idea, really. One of Lancaster Farming's letter writers witnessed such an act and told us all about it in a very literate and civil way. You can read his letter on the editorial page of our current edition.


     If I could do this, I wouldn't.   http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/guy-blows-up-balloons-with-ears/uf7mk72j