Storm over Mormon crop cash

The Mormon church owns thousands of acres in the UK

The Mormon church has denied reports suggesting their farms grow certain crops to reap EU subsidies for its US headquarters.


Roger Harrabin: "They attract agricultural subsidies totalling nearly £1m"
The church, which owns thousands of acres of farmland in Cambridgeshire, is set to receive £1m from Europe.

The church was reported in the Daily Mail as buying up land, with profits going back to the church's headquarters in Salt Lake City.

Farming in Crisis
But Clive Jolife, who runs the farms, said profits go to the church in England - which in turn distributes money to charity.

Clive Jolife denies that agricultural subsides finish up in Utah
The church recently donated £50,000 to help the victims of Hurricane Mitch in Central America, he said.

He added: "We have mainly cereal farms and the land is only suited to growing cereal crops.

"The last purchase was a root crop farm, growing potatoes and onions, therefore having no subsidy at all.

"And we have put together a pig herd - that's not dependent on subsidies.

"We are really trying deliberately to get away from subsidies."

Meanwhile, the European policy of awarding subsidies per acre is attracting increasing criticism from small farmers and wildlife groups.

Small farmers say the practice merely encourages huge agricultural companies to buy up more and more land in order to get extra European cash.

And wildlife groups say that the policy promotes intensive farming, which diminishes natural environments for many animals and plants.

Policy chief for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Jim Dixon, told BBC Radio 4's today programme: "At the moment the money that goes to the countryside goes to those that produce the most.

"What we need to do is change the whole basis of the policy so that we give the same amount of money to the farming community, but in a way which rewards those that look after the countryside and protect the countryside we all cherish."