One year on from a landmark report “A shared prospect for farming and food in Europe” (the final consensus report of the Strategic Dialogue on the future of EU agriculture), we take stock to see how far we’ve come (or haven’t).
It’s been exactly one year since the publication of a groundbreaking agreement on EU food and farming was reached. For the first time, the farming sector, civil society, consumer groups and industry actors collectively called for change. A remarkable achievement for groups that often don’t see eye to eye.
This historic turn of events was partly driven by the current state of EU food and farming, which is driving farms to debt and closure, pushing an epidemy of diet-related diseases, and causing devasting nature loss. This reality is reflected in one of the report’s opening statements: “business-as-usual is not an option”.
So, one year on, we’re digging into some of the key consensus recommendations to see if the European Commission has listened to the group that they themselves brought together.
Farm to…?
We’ll be brief. All proposals, events, and speeches since the consensus report was published have had big gaping holes where food should be. For some reason our Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, doesn’t seem to think the consumption side of our food system matters. This is more than a little disappointing, as you cannot create meaningful change in our food system, if you don’t look at what we eat. There are no farms without forks, Mr Hansen.
Despite a joint call for “supporting trends towards rebalancing diets towards more plant based proteins”, there is no legislative initiative addressing diets in sight. In fact, the Commission seems to have resolutely decided to ignore decades of evidence on the desperate need to make healthy and sustainable diets the easy choice. Average diets consumed in the EU are overwhelmingly driving environmental destruction, poor animal welfare, and widespread illness and bad health. The report recognised this, and yet one year on, we are left hungry for change.
More money for nature and climate
With Europe being the fastest warming continent on Earth with ecosystems collapsing around us, it’s no surprise members of the Dialogue called for “substantially increasing funding” for nature and climate-friendly farming (with a focus on rewarding farmers for results rather than the practices they use to get there). The aim was to ensure that farmers were supported in taking up sustainable practices, whilst reducing the need for them to follow mandatory requirements.
But in July this year, the Commission’s proposal for the post-2027 CAP was brutally clear, there will be no mandatory minimum set for funding dedicated to support farmers in the green transition. With an overall smaller budget and pressures to keep money flowing to farmers as “income support”, this will very likely lead to a steep drop in funding for agri-environmental measures.
In parallel, the “simplification” drive which weakened the CAP’s environmental safeguards twice in the past two years is continuing unabated, with the post-2027 proposal set to weaken them further. With no real money put towards the remaining purely incentive driven tools and objectives, the promise of a more sustainable CAP remains empty. This is not the move “from conditions to incentives” promised by the Commission, this is a free for all.
Supporting farmers who need it most
Between 2005 and 2020, the EU lost 5.3 million smaller farms and younger generations see little incentive to take the reins. Which is why the consensus’ call for “targeting income support only at the active farmers who need it most” while moving “away from area-based payments” (which results in 80% of CAP funding going to just 20% of farms, the largest ones) was timely and highly welcome.
The Commission took this recommendation partially on board: proposing better targeting, but falling short of providing a timeline for the move away from income support based on farm size alone. This could make a real difference to millions of farmers across Europe, yet it is likely to face tough opposition from those defending Big Agri interests in the European Parliament and Council – watch this space.
Joined-up thinking
It really shouldn’t need saying, and yet here we are. Every day across the EU, the implementation and enforcement of existing environmental legislation remains a big problem. Which is why the report called for stronger support to uphold and apply these laws, explicitly listing a number of laws including the Nitrates Directive, Water Framework Directive, the Nature Restoration Law, and climate legislation. All vital for protecting our own health as well as the environment on which we depend.
A lot has happened since then. Not only has this recommendation not been followed, but nearly all of these laws could potentially fall victim to the EU’s new deregulation obsession, which has seen the rollback of vital and fundamental agricultural, climate and digital laws all in the name of “competitiveness”. But competitive for whom and to what end?
Is it “competitive” to jeopardise the future viability of EU farming and the health of Europeans by further poisoning our water, depleting our soils, and polluting the air we breathe? We would argue no, it isn’t.
What next?
We wish we could have reported a better outcome, but fear not, all is not lost. There are plenty of opportunities to keep the legacy of the agreement alive. The EU could follow countries like Denmark and Portugal and publish an EU Action Plan for plant-based foods, together with a protein plan – thus bringing the much need ‘food’ aspect back into the picture. We are also still awaiting a promised revision of the EU’s outdated Animal Welfare legislation, which should propose a phase out to the use of cages – something millions of EU citizens have called for.
And while the Commission’s CAP proposal pleased no one, everyday farmers across Europe are proving that sustainable farming that nurtures the soil, builds resilience in the face of the climate crisis, and produces healthy food is possible! Which is why we call on the Commission, the Parliament and the Council to carry on the legacy of this momentous agreement and support all farmers to build a resilient and nature-friendly food and farming system that wider society will benefit from.
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Photo by Viktor Hesse on Unsplash
