From time immemorial the European peasant has prayed for plentiful harvests. Yet plenty has not necessarily been good for the Common Market's 11 million farmers. Blessed by good crops and improved farming techniques, they have accumulated huge surpluses of agricultural products, and are swamped by tomatoes, cauliflowers, apples, plums and pears. In Germany alone, the government has had to buy and store some 80,000 tons of surplus butter, which is now known as the Butterberg (butter mountain).
For years the six Common Market partners discussed the problem of opening their frontiers to one another's agricultural produce. Because powerful farmers' associations...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
