A Brief History of European Agricultural Policy

Yesterday, I went to a talk by a rep of Germanwatch, a German NGO, on European Agricultural Policy and its relationship to climate change. As part of the presentation, the presenter gave a great overview of how European agricultural policy evolved and I thought I’d reproduce it here for all the non-Europeans (and Europeans!) who don’t know where to start with this crazy continent. Obviously, it’s gonna be by no means complete or exhaustive.

Even before World War II,  the countries of Europe had traditionally been net importers of food. Shipments of food were especially vital in the post-war years, and this may have been when the idea of food self-sufficiency took off. In the 1950s, the six founding members of the European Union (Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxemburg) – still called the European Economic Community – created a common market, and in 1962 started its ‘common…