Facing E. Coli, EU Bails Out Big Agro
June 8th, 2011
As bean sprouts cause epidemic, Brussels sprouts bailouts
A deadly E. Coli outbreak has hit Europe, claiming the lives of 24 people. The source of this infectious bacteria appears to be bean sprouts grown in the German state of Lower Saxony, near Hamburg. The European Union, and the world community as a whole, has been criticizing Germany for allowing tainted vegetables to get onto the market, and the anemic response to the crisis once it was discovered. Germany was quick to blame federal and state bureaucracy for the mishap, and is currently working to prevent a similar outbreak from re-occuring.
Meanwhile, the EU is set to compensate the farmers for their lost produce to the tune of nearly $220 million. However, if you’re a farmer that still uses manure rather than the purer, yet more expensive chemical fertilizer, you’re less likely to get any of the funds that you might need to withstand the financial impact of this ecological disaster. Manure is more organic than chemical fertilizer and less costly than buying industrial fertilizer usually reserved for large-scale agro-businesses that dominate the US today, yet small scale farms don’t have the kind of access that big agriculture has over the fertilizers, so they use manure. As a result, when the EU dishes out its farm bailouts, the small European farmer will be left high and dry, while the multi-national big farmers are cushioned.
In the face of this serious bacterial outbreak, the actions of the EU show that crony capitalism remains alive, and big businesses can expect the government to catch them when they fall.
