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EU farm policy currently accounts for about 40 percent of the bloc's budget (Photo: Commission)

Brussels fires first shot in overhaul of EU farm policy

The European Commission on Wednesday published keenly awaited proposals to overhaul its farm policy from 2014, capping payments to single farms and obliging the EU's 12 million landowners to become greener.

Under the draft legislation, which runs to around 1000 pages, 30 percent of the direct payments will be dependent on the farmer growing at least three crops and putting aside seven percent of farmland for “ecological purposes.”

The commission has also attempted to narrow the g...

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