Farmers cross pitchforks with their governments almost everywhere, but the dueling is particularly spirited in Europe's Common Market. In the six member nations, farmers constitute a politically powerful 16% of the population and have extracted uniformly lavish price supports. This has encouraged overproduction and bulging surpluses of eggs, pork, wheat, apples and practically all other foods. The cost of underwriting the cornucopia reached $4.5 billion in 1968, and could mount to $10 billion by 1980. As trade unions, consumer groups and other proponents of farm reform point out, that is quite a bite.
Of course, the farmers resist change. Now...
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