Farmsubsidy.org uses freedom of information law to force European governments to release detailed data on who gets what from Europe's €55 billion Common Agricultural Policy. We then make this data available in an online database on this website. Data released is highly variable both in quality and completeness. Some countries have refused to release any data.
Earlier in the year a collaboration between German TV station Bayerischer Rundfunk's Report München, Greenpeace and farmsubsidy.org uncovered farm subsidies going to some unusual recipients: airlines and cruise ships. Recall that revelations about farm subsidies paid to golf courses, pony clubs and railway companies made headlines in the autumn of last year. You can now watch the report with English subtitles.
Farmsubsidy.org co-founder Brigitte Alfter has received an 'honorable mention' in this year's Henri Nannen Prize, a prestigious German journalism prize, said by some to be 'Germany's Pulitzers'. Brigitte's report on farm subsidies in the German region of North Rhein Westfalia, which was co-authored by Hans-Martin Tillack for Stern magazine was published in November 2007 and farmsubsidy.org has commissioned an English translation of the text.
The Washington Post's Harvesting Cash series took the subject of farm subsidies onto the front pages and was deservedly nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. The investigation, led by Post reporters Dan Morgan, Gilbert M. Gaul and Sarah Cohen, is an inspiring piece of investigative journalism, showing the power of transparency, computer-assisted-reporting and knowing your subject in detail. Bill Moyers Journal teamed up with the PBS series Exposé: America's Investigative Reports to follow the trail of the Washington Post reporters. You can watch the superb documentary after the jump or read more over here.
For more than a decade, the International Budget Project has been leading the way in citizen-led budget monitoring. While the IBP has always had an emphasis on developing countries and new democracies, there is much that civil society groups in the European Union can learn from its work. Last month it published a new guide, entitled "Our Money, Our Responsibility - A Citizens’ Guide to Monitoring Government Expenditures".
I met recently with EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel to discuss the CAP 'health check' and the recently announced plans to publish recipients of EU farm subsidy payments. I asked her why the upcoming register of recipients farm support will be spread across 27 different websites, and why the there will be no obligation to make the different sources of support known to the public. The Commissioner has herself been in the limelight as a recipient of EU farm subsidies says she’s happy with increased transparency.
It's official: transparency will be a reality for EU farm subsidies by 30 April 2009. The Commission has this week adopted the implementing rules on how transparency in farm subsidies will operate. There will be one website for each member state - that's 27 websites! Hmm, that doesn't sound very user friendly, does it?. To find out how much a big company like Arla, Nestle or Campina gets in EU farm subsidies, you will have to search 27 times... But do not fear, if farmsubsidy.org continues to receive the generous financial support from its foundation funders, this website will remain the only place where people can run 'one click searches' of data across the whole EU.
The UK's Advertising Standards Authority has today published its adjudication judgment in which it upheld the complaint I made late last year about an advertising campaign by the US Cotton Council which claimed that cotton produced in the US was 'soft, sensual and sustainable'.
