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FarmSubsidy.org - Country

Who gets what from the Common Agricultural Policy


e.g. Nestle or Windsor

About Us

The project

Subsidies paid to farmers and others under the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy amount to approximately €55 billion a year, more than 40% of European Union’s entire annual budget, or around €100 a year for each EU citizen. Farmsubsidy.org is a project coordinated by EU Transparency, a non-profit organisation in the UK and Kaas og Mulvad, a data consultancy in Denmark. The aim is to obtain detailed data relating to payments and recipients of farm subsidies in every EU member state and make this data available in a way that is useful to European citizens. The project has brought together journalists, analysts and campaigners in more than ten countries.

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Supporters

EU Transparency and DICAR (Danish International Center for Analytical Reporting), which founded farmsubsidy.org, have received funding for their farm subsidy transparency work from the following sources: William and Flora Hewlett Foundation ($276,000), the Open Society Foundation (€22,800) and the European Social Fund (€60,000). In addition, the various organisations and individuals involved in the project have their own sources of funding.

Network coordinators

The farmsubsidy.org network is coordinated by Nils Mulvad, Jack Thurston and Brigitte Alfter.

Nils Mulvad
photo of NILS MULVAD

Born 1955, Nils is a co-founder of farmsubsidy.org and a partner of Kaas and Mulvad, a data consultancy in Denmark. Until December 2006 he was the executive director of the Danish International Center for Analytical Reporting, DICAR. Along with Kjeld Hansen he applied for and obtained the Danish data on beneficiaries of agricultural subsidies, a case that lasted for 16 months ending in May 2004 with the release of the data. Nils is a trainer in investigative journalism, computer-assisted reporting and interview techniques. Nils Mulvad has conducted training in Denmark, UK, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Serbia, Bosnia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Bangladesh. He participates in research on electronic access in Denmark and is co-author to several reports on that issue. Together with Flemming Svith he is author of two Danish textbooks on Computer-Assisted Reporting, “The New House of the Watchdog” published in 1998 and “Watchdog in the Knowledge Society” published in 2002. Nils Mulvad and Brant Houston, executive director of the US-based Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) were responsible for the two first Global Investigative Journalism Conferences in 2001 and 2003 in Copenhagen. In 2002 Nils initiated the Scoop-project to support investigative journalism in South East Europe and the Ukraine and currently is on its board. Since 2001 he has served as a board-member of the Danish Association for Investigative Journalism. He previously worked at the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten. He operates from Aarhus in Denmark. Nils won the European Voice 'Journalist of the Year' award in December 2006.

Jack Thurston
photo of jack thurston

Based in London, UK, Jack is a co-founder of farmsubsidy.org. He has led the campaign for access to farm subsidy data in the UK and continues to work on building a pan-European network of activists and journalists making similar requests. He was formerly a political adviser to Nick Brown, the UK Minister for Agriculture Fisheries and Food (1998-2001). He was been a Senior Research Associate at the Foreign Policy Centre in London from 2002 to 2005. He is also a Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the US. He writes widely on agriculture, food and trade policy including 'How to Reform the CAP' (FPC, 2002, download), and 'Free and Fair: Making the Progressive Case for Removing Trade Barriers (FPC, 2004, download) and 'Why Europe Deserves a Better Farm Policy' (Centre for European Reform, 2005, download). His articles have appeared in The Guardian, The Observer, European Voice, New Statesman, Prospect and Tribune. He is also a regular contributor to BBC Radio Four’s ‘Farming Today’. Jack holds a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (Oxford University) and a masters in Public Policy Analysis (University of California at Berkeley). You can read Jack's blog here or email him via jack(at)farmsubsidy(dot)org

Brigitte Alfter
photo of BRIGITTE ALFTER

Born in 1966 in Germany, Brigitte Alfter is the EU-correspondent in Brussels for the Danish daily Information. She has covered EU-matters for a number of years, and also writes about media law for journalist magazines in European countries. She uses freedom of information legislation as a journalistic tool and conducts training on the subject. A board member of the Danish Association for Investigative Journalism since 2002, she was one of the coordinators for the Danish Scoop project to support investigative journalism in South East Europe and the Ukraine. She was nominated for the Danish Cavling award for journalists in 2006 along with farmsubsidy.org colleague Nils Mulvad, and she was awarded the IRE Freedom of Information Award along with farmsubsidy colleagues Nils Mulvad and Jack Thurston. Since 2007 she has been editor of the 'wobsite' on freedom of information in Europe.

Network members

Farmsubsidy.org brings together a growing network of European journalists, researchers and activists.

Pierre Boulanger
photo of Pierre Boulanger

Pierre is currently in charge of the “CAP Efficiency, Equity and Transparency” Research Programme at the Groupe d’Economie Mondiale (GEM) in Paris since 2005. He is a Research and Teaching Fellow at Sciences Po and is writing a Ph.D thesis under the supervision of Prof. Patrick A. Messerlin. Pierre holds a Master’s degree in International Economic Relations from the Paris Political Studies Institute (Sciences Po) and also degrees in Applied Economics from the Paris-Dauphine University and the Autonomous University of Madrid. His fields of research are Agricultural and Rural Development Policies, (De)coupled Farm Subsidies Distribution, European Trade Policy and Structural Adjustments induced by Globalization.

Annamarie Cumiskey

Annamarie Cumiskey is an Irish freelance TV producer/reporter and print journalist specialised in EU politics based in London. She was a regular contributor on EU politics to The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph and The European, and is now a TV producer/reporter. Credits include: Newsnight, BBC2 and TV3 News, Ireland. Annamarie speaks French, German and Italian, has lectured on EU Politics for the EJC, Maastricht and the IEME, Paris, and graduated from the College of Europe, Bruges. In 1999 she was a member of The Sunday Times Kosovo crisis reporting team awarded “Team of the Year” by the British Press Awards.

Staffan Dahllöf
photo of STAFFAN DAHLLÖF

Born 1955 in Sweden, Staffan is a freelance reporter based in Copenhagen, where he reports on Danish issues to Swedish media, and on European affairs to Danish and Swedish media. In 1993 he was co-editor and co-author on "JournalisternasEG-handbok", a guide in Swedish on EC/EU-reporting. Since 1994 he has been engaged in courses on EU-reporting arranged by The Swedish Institute for Further Education of Journalists (FOJO),and by the European Journalist Center (EJC) in Maastricht. In this respect he has conducted courses about EU and EU-reporting in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia, and for a couple of years, in Turkey.

Andrzej Krajewski
photo of Andrzej Krajewski

Andrzej Krajewski is a freelance journalist, independent publisher and media consultant based in Warsaw, Poland. He is a member of International Federation of Journalists Executive Committee. From 2003-05, Andrzej was director of Press Freedom Monitoring Centre of Polish Journalists' Association and prior to that deputy editor in chief of FORUM weekly. For seven years during the 1980s and 1990s he was a correspondent for Polish TV, Radio and newspapers in the United States. He has published several books about society and politics of Poland in 1982-1986 ("Cicerone"), interviews with Solidarity émigrés from U.S. ("Region USA"), story of Colonel Kuklinski, Polish officer, who secretly worked for CIA in the '70s ("Zasluga dla Polski"). More at his website

Stefan Magdalinski
photo of NILS MULVAD

Stefan Magdalinski has been an online civic activist for over 10 years. Previous projects he co-founded include Faxyourmp, and the groundbreaking online geocoded information source and community, UpMyStreet.com. His most recent project, TheyWorkForYou.com, is an activist-created and run re-implementation of Hansard, the UK's parliamentary record. He writes occasionally at Whitelabel.org

Konstantin Ivanov
photo of Konstantin Ivanov

Konstantin Ivanov is one of the founders of the Bulgarian Media Institute and its current chairman. He holds an MA in Radio Broadcasting and Economics Journalism. Konstantin has been working for a number of print media and radiostations, including BBC World Service (2002-2006). He is a trainer in computer-assisted reporting.


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Enquiries

All media enquiries to Jack Thurston, phone +44 (0)7973 155 278.