Massive Change in Store for Europe's Farms

March 19 -- Over the past few months, disease has ravaged European agriculture. Europe's collective response to the unfolding health crises has the potential to radically restructure its agricultural sector.

Mad cow disease, otherwise known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, is transmitted primarily through the use of "blood meal," a feed that contains the ground remains of other cattle. The United States banned the use of this "blood meal" in 1997. Europe got around to it only this year. BSE causes a variety of nervous system disorders in animals; scientists suspect BSE is linked to a fatal human illness, Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease.

Foot-and-mouth disease causes blisters in the mouth and hooves of cloven hoofed animals such as sheep, goats, deer and pigs and drastically reduces both meat and milk production. While it lacks the potential to harm humans, it can spread easily, via clothing, automobile tires, or even simply by wind. The virus' ability to spread makes it a far more serious economic threat than BSE.

Both recent outbreaks began in the United Kingdom. Cases of BSE have since spread throughout Europe. While this new foot-and-mouth outbreak has spread only to France, its appearance on the continent has prompted more than 90 countries to ban all EU animals and raw meat products. Others have added dairy products to the list, and some countries have gone so far as to ban all EU agricultural produce. Meanwhile, consumers are clamoring for new policies to protect them from new flareups of BSE, foot-and-mouth or any other pathogen lurking in Europe's animal pens.

Forcing Out Subsidies

It's abundantly clear, however, that Western Europe will be unable to foot the bill for these policies. The EU already spends 46 percent of its total budget on the CAP, or Common Agricultural Policy, a controversial system of supports, subsidies and incentives for European farms.

It's a testament to the political strength of farmers — particularly French farmers. The average full-time farmer in the EU receives subsidies amounting to $17,000 annually, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.