Europe's farmers have always said they have had a tough time of it: whether it's rising rents, weather, disease, government controls or cash squeezes from retailers.
But the scrapping of a long-hated piece of red tape — milk production quotas — will create new opportunities and risks for the European Union's farming industry as well as affect the cost of your daily pint of milk and countless other food.
The EU's milk production quotas were originally introduced in 1984 when farmers, eager to exploit a guaranteed price of milk regardless of demand, literally flooded Europe with dairy goods. The resulting so-called "butter mountains" and "milk lakes" were a symptom of government micro-management.
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