The fruit and vegetable sector is characterised by market instability, and in the event of price collapses the current system of market withdrawals is of limited effectiveness as a safety net for farmers’ incomes, owing to insufficient payments, excessive bureaucracy, shortcomings in organisation in the production regions, failure to recognise the production potential in order to ensure correct market management, the effect of imports from third countries and the lack of genuine outlets for the products withdrawn.

Although the automobile played a crucial role in creating this “open society,” the process could not have occurred to the extent it has without falling transportation costs[27] and sharp declines in the price and widespread use of communications technology (telephones, radio, television, computers, the Internet).

Prices of grains and oilseeds have steadily declined for the last decades and remain extremely low — the Canadian Federation of Agriculture indicated that from 2002 to 2005, the price of grains and oilseeds dropped by over 25 per cent. Causes of this situation include: trade distorting subsidies paid to grain producers by large producing countries like the United States and members of the European Union; increasing agricultural exports from low-cost producing countries like Brazil; and, the increasing lack of competition upstream and downstream from primary production that leaves farmers without real power in the market are often cited ...[+++] as the cause of this situation.

The fact that this confidence is lacking is obvious from the drop in the currency value of the Euro, which, since its launch, has lost nearly 30% of its value compared to the Yen and the American Dollar.

He suffered from distress signals such as blackouts, comas, seizures and no warning signs for rapid onset low blood sugar.

We are concerned that in the absence of specific legal restrictions, industry initiatives of this sort will create a downward spiral for wages and working conditions, pitting one group of employees against the other in an invidious race to the bottom.