October 18 Brussels

Today we left Germany and made our way to Brussels, the Capital of the EU.  I think we were all a little disappointed not nearly as nice a city as we expected.  

We started the day with Dr. Lutz driving us to the train station where we went from Bonn to Cologne.  We got off at Cologne to walk through the cathedral, a massive old Catholic Church located right next to the train station.  Like all the other churches we have seen it was amazing, large stain glass windows and paintings.  But with all the visitors coming and going the picture taking and other distractions they seem to lack the reverence I expect to feel in at church.

After an hour stop we hoped back on the train and finished our trip to Brussels.  Upon Arriving in Brussels we were to be picked up and taken to our first appointment, but we could not find our ride.  We finally got a taxi to take us to our hotel where we were able to contact the DBV and make arrangements to be picked up.  It was a simple case of missing each other.  Willi Kampmann, who we had lunch with on Sunday was waiting for us on the train platform.  We got off the train went straight down the stairs and waited at the front of the station.  We never saw Willi, and he never saw us.  He did finally find us at the hotel.

In Germany not only do they have a national government in Berlin to deal with, they also have to the European Union located in Brussels.  The last part of our trip will focus on understanding the EU and its relationship to Agriculture.

We first met with Roger Waite, European Commission spokesperson for Agriculture and Rural Development.  Mr. Waite is originally from England, it was very different to talk with a native English speaker after three week in German.  He spoke about and their policies toward agriculture.  Today 40% of the EU budget goes to Ag, in 1960 it was 80%.  25% of the budget is for Rural development Programs, "the programs are for everyone, but are delivered by the farmers."  One of the concerns they have right now is a change to the political process of the EU that they call Co-Decision.  In the past the Council of Ministers had final say on all Ag policy, the recommendation from Parliament was non binding.  Under the new process Parliament and the Council must both agree on the policy before it will be passed.  It is unsure how this will affect agriculture, it will certainly slow down the decision making process.  He also talked about the history of Ag programs.  In 1992 price support programs were reduced and a direct payment program was started.  In 2002 the direct payments were no longer linked to production, instead a flat rate per hectare, or per animal was adopted .  Today they are talking about requiring 30% of Farm payments to be linked to "greening" programs to increase crop diversity and protect the environment.  They are also talking about capping payments to individual farms (large farms).  Also creating incentives for young people to get started with farming, possibly a 25% higher direct payment for the first 5 years.  The challenge for EU farmers, like US farmers is to produce more with less.  In Europe this will have to be done without the use of GMO products, that debate has already been lost to public opinion.  A good discussion Mr. Waite is very down to earth and really tried to help us understand the EU Ag policy and political debates at this time.     

We then had dinner with Maurice House, USDA Minister-councilor for agriculture.  Mr House has been with the USDA for over 28 years and has worked in several different countries, he not works in Brussels with the EU.  He is very outspoken and somewhat critical of the European attitude towards US agriculture and GMO crops.  His job is to develop opportunities for US Ag products to be sold in European markets, today we have very limited sales in Europe.  A few high end products such as t-bone steaks.  One of his biggest grips with the EU is that they take away consumers choice and mandate what products they can buy, no choice about Bio-tech, it is just not available at any price.