By Martin Banks - 16th June 2011
Europe deserves a new agricultural policy
Environmental alliance
Environmental groups have appealed to MEPs to ensure that the EU's common agriculture policy (CAP) is "sufficiently reformed".
The plea comes as MEPs prepare to vote on the future of the CAP in next week's mini plenary in Brussels.
Ahead of the crunch vote on Thursday, environmental, animal welfare, farmers and health NGOs say they are "worried that little will be done to fix the currently broken CAP system".
They say the CAP is a policy that "takes up 40 per cent of the EU's budget - €57bn - and where 80 per cent goes to 20 per cent of the recipients".
In the letter sent to all MEPs, they urge deputies "to seize the opportunity to tackle one of Europe's great challenges; reforming the currently unsustainable food and agricultural system".
The letter goes on, "The current model of food production is outdated and our current consumption patterns unsustainable.
"The EU can no longer justify a CAP which puts our environment increasingly under strain and subsidises systems that contribute to biodiversity loss, water scarcity, water pollution, animal suffering and climate change.
"We can no longer allow a policy which harms the natural resources farmers and consumers rely on, while having damaging consequences abroad and negatively impacting public health and Europe's long-term food security."
It says Europe's farmers, consumers and societies are "facing increasing health problems" linked to intensive production practices and "efforts must be made to decrease dependency on artificial inputs and encourage more resilient production systems".
"We, representing environment, consumers, farmers, development, health and animal welfare organisations wish to highlight the urgent need for an ambitious reform of the CAP and ask you to support this call."
The groups say a report by parliament's agricultural committee has identified certain challenges but "does not propose ways to fix the current CAP model".
"Instead it defends the status quo of harmful subsidies, paid by all taxpayers."
The letter adds, "This is going against the will of European citizens, where the latest eurobarometer poll demonstrates that 89 per cent of Europeans want to see more environmental benefits from taxpayers' money.
"Europe deserves a new agricultural policy that will promote a sustainable production and consumption system and remove harmful subsidies."
It concludes, "We members of civil society will carefully watch how you tackle these challenges with your vote."
The letter is signed by the European Environmental Bureau, Greenpeace, Eurogroup for Animals, Birdlife Europe, International Foundation for Organic Agriculture Movements Europe, Europarc, European Public Health and Agriculture Consortium, Eurocoop, Pesticides Action Network, and Friends of the Earth Europe.
