Clearly there are two sides to every story...and having just been taken out for a very nice lunch by the French agriculture attaché, I'm happy to say that that includes the story about French protein crop subsidies too.
Contrary to the views expressed in this blog a week ago, it seems the driving force behind the French decision to pay up to €150/ha additional aid to pea and bean producers is the desire to reduce dependency on imported proteins.
Like many other member states, France has been struggling to get the protein supplies it needs for its livestock because of the EU's "zero tolerance" approach to maize and soya shipments containing just traces of non-approved GMOs.
France is therefore eager to step up domestic production to levels that existed a few years ago.
According to my lunchtime host, the measure is not designed to give French pea and bean producers an advantage in key export markets, as I'd previously suggested. Indeed, the €150/ha subsidy will only be available to producers whose crops go into animal feed...
He also pointed out that the €40m scheme is part of a general package of measures aimed at redistributing single farm payments, with protein crops targeted because of the positive contribution they make to the environment.
On top of this, he pointed to France's good track record on cross compliance. For example, it already insists on a 5m buffer strips along water courses, compared with the UK's 2m buffer strips. And farms also need to maintain a minimum 1% green cover, rising to 5% in 2012.
It was certainly interesting to hear the other side to the story - but it still does not entirely stack up for me.
For a start, I'm not convinced the environmental benefits claimed for peas and beans are entirely consistent with what Article 68 of the CAP health check is looking for. That allows payments to "specific types of farming which are important for the protection of the environment". OK, so peas and beans help fix nitrogen, but I'm not sure they do much else.
I also don't buy the argument that it is not trade distorting. Even if the aid is aimed at growers selling into the domestic animal feed market, that will still make it harder for non-French producers to secure business with French compounders.
But on one point, I do concur with my lunchtime host. There is a misconception in the UK that the French always pay scant regard for EU law. Certainly there have been some high profile examples where this has been the case - the ban on British beef is a classic.
But, having visited numerous French farms over the years, I can confirm that very often French officials are every bit as zealous as British ones when it comes to issuing red tape. Civil servants, it seems, are the same the world over.
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