Business as usual and mass funding of nature destruction under new Common Agricultural Policy
Brussels, 23 November 2021
Today, the European Parliament cast their final vote to approve a Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that will mostly fund intensive and factory farming. The intensive agriculture model it promotes directly leads to biodiversity loss, water and air pollution, over-extraction of water, and fuels the climate crisis.
The CAP, which makes up around a third of the total EU budget, will cost EU taxpayers roughly 54 million euros per year between 2022-2027.
The Green Deal communication states “the Commission will work with the Member States and stakeholders to ensure that from the outset the national strategic plans for agriculture fully reflect the ambition of the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy.” However, our first analysis indicates that the new generation of CAP National Strategic Plans will mostly be business as usual rather than drive the transition the planet desperately needs. The governments who fought hard for the new CAP to allow them to keep channelling money to the same old beneficiaries are now, to nobody’s surprise, using this freedom to do exactly that.
The EU’s own auditor service and over 3600 scientists have condemned the CAP, and numerous studies have confirmed that the intensive farming the CAP promotes is pushing many species towards extinction[1]. Since 1980, the EU has lost 57% of its farmland birds. Butterflies, bees and flying...
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