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Welcome
to the new monthly newsletter for journalists about the impact of
subsidies, produced in partnership by IPS
- Inter Press Service and GSI
- Global Subsidies Initiative.
THIS
MONTH'S FOCUS: Helping to Make Sense of it All
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The following editorial illustrates the phenomenal
impact of investigative journalism, particularly
in areas long on statistical data but short
on analysis. With an aim to helping journalists
tackle challenging investigative work on subsidies,
the Global Subsidies Initiative offers grants
to journalists worldwide who wish to pursue
a special reporting project on the links between
subsidies and sustainable development Journalism
Grants. |
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ABOUT
THIS NEWSLETTER
Subsidies
—transfers of public money to private interests—
are so common that for the most part they
go unnoticed; they can also be arcane and
complex, posing tremendous challenges for
journalists. Yet, many experts believe that
subsidies are one of the most critical factors
in determining the sustainability of a government’s
economic, social and environmental policies.
Read more here about the organisations that
have partnered to bring you this newsletter,
and why.
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Unleashing the power of investigative journalism
By Jack Thurston, www.farmsubsidy.org
Eight years - and a lifetime - ago, I was working as a political aide to the UK agriculture minister Nick Brown. It was a difficult time for British farming. Prices were down, the backwash of mad cow disease was impacting the livestock sector, the strong pound was hitting exporters and there was genuine discontent in many rural communities. At the same time, the member states of the European Union were negotiating a reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP), the collective name for all the support programmes that exist to give a helping hand to European farmers. At a time of crisis, farmers said, why tinker with the government support programmes that are our lifeline?
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More
information about subsidies
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The Global Subsidies Initiative cooperates
with an international network of researchers
working on subsidy related issues. Journalists
working on stories that involve subsidies,
and who are in search of expertise, information
and support are invited to contact Javed Ahmad,
the GSI's Director of Communications, at info@globalsubsidies.org.
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Jack Thurston Bio
Jack Thurston is the co-founder of www.farmsubsidy.org, a network of journalists, analysts and campaigners in more than 12 European countries who are seeking to obtain detailed data on farm subsidy payments and make these data available in a way that is useful to European citizens.
SUBSIDIES
STORIES FROM IPS - RECENT ARTICLES
ENVIRONMENT: Clean or Not Thailand Sees Dollars in Palm Oil
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
KRABI - The new governor of this southern province has set his sights on another prize to add to its list of unique features. ‘’We are aiming to be the palm oil capital of Thailand,’’ says Siwa Sirisoawaluk who has been Krabi’s chief administrator for nine months.
ENVIRONMENT: EU Finds Green Reasons Against Biofuels
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS - European Union officials have signalled that they will ban subsidies for biofuels in cases where their production causes serious environmental damage.
ENVIRONMENT: Cellulosic Ethanol - Clean but Worth Unproven
By Stephen Leahy
BROOKLIN, Canada - With biofuels being blamed for rising food prices and offering limited environmental benefits, diverse luminaries like former U.S. vice-president Al Gore and Microsoft’s Bill Gates are throwing their considerable support behind cellulosic ethanol, a second generation biofuel.
RELATED
WEB SITES
Farmsubsidy.org
http://www.farmsubsidy.org
Farmsubsidy.org is a European network of researchers and journalists
who use freedom of information laws to force European governments
to release detailed data on who gets what from Europe's €55
billion Common Agricultural Policy. This data is made available
online.
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The Environmental Working Group
http://farm.ewg.org/farm/
The American Environmental Working Group was launched in the
early 1990’s to build the case for a better balance between
conservation spending and commodity subsidies. The EWG has since
made a concerted effort to “follow the money" by
employing computer investigation techniques to find out more
about the commodity subsidies, including who has been receiving
all those billions of dollars. Research and analysis by the
EWG also seeks to examine what purposes are being served, and
what problems are created, by massive spending on agricultural
subsidies.
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Groupe
d'Economie Mondiale
http://gem.sciences-po.fr/
The Groupe d'Economie Mondiale of Sciences Politiques (Sciences
Po) is an independent and non-partisan Paris-based research
centre that seeks to promote debate on international economic
integration. One of the centre’s on-going projects examines
the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and particularly
French agricultural subsidies. France is the largest European
agricultural producer and exporter, and also the first beneficiary
of financial support provided by the CAP – absorbing roughly
one fourth of the CAP budget |
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