Germany expects to destroy about 400,000 cattle under a purchase for destruction launched by the EU.

In 1996, the European Union subsidised European farmers to the tune of $120bn - that is nearly $18,000 per farmer, or $322 per consumer.

That huge cost is dwarfed by no other country, although Japan, the US, Switzerland and Norway spend more per farmer.

But pressure is growing to reduce the huge CAP - ministers realise that the twin aims of a bigger EU and a smaller CAP will mean radical adjustments in the amount that farmers can be paid.

Many of the countries applying to join the EU see the CAP as one of the biggest appeals - a huge bowl of money just to support their farmers. They are going to be proved wrong.

BSE may be the catalyst.

No one really knows yet how much the BSE crisis will cost, but consider that the millions of tonnes of beef in cold storage - the beef mountain - will now have to be destroyed, on top of the estimated 400,000 cattle in Germany.

And the cost and the simple management of such a huge task could become horrendous enough to pull the already stressed CAP budget apart.

Meanwhile, consumers in some of the east European states are anxious that they could be unwitting victims of Europe's problem.

Without the tough checks and balances of the food industries of Western Europe, they fear they could end up consuming beef sold to them by unscrupulous farmers to their west.

We may all find that eating more vegetables is better for us in the end after all.