Society needs to transition to more sustainable, resilient and agroecological food systems in the coming decades, so that we grow healthy and nutritious food in a way that respects animals and nature, and fairly reward those who produce it.
Public money is needed to help support and accelerate that transition to ensure that it is done fairly for farmers and consumers.
The European Commission is working on a proposal for the EU’s next multi-year budget, which will start in 2028. The EU’s farm subsidy program, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), receives around a quarter of the bloc’s annual spending, highlighting the importance of this sector to the EU’s budget deliberations.
IATP Europe had the opportunity to submit its views on the next budget through a recent public consultation survey.
Our five key budget considerations to support the agri-food transition are:
- Spend wisely and coherently to support farmers as they help society fight climate change and make their farms more resilient to its devasting impacts. Current farm subsidies run counter to the EU’s climate objectives and put the long-term viability of farming in some regions at risk as funding disproportionally supports GHG emissions-intensive industrial animal farming.
- Spend fairly to support those farmers who need it, especially to encourage more women to take up the profession as well as the next generation, moving away from the hectare-based payment system.
- Establish an agri-food just transition fund to support the transition to more sustainable and agroecological farming and away from industrialized livestock production. The benefit of having a dedicated fund for the agri-food transition is the signal it sends to those involved in food production as to where the sector is headed.
- Measure and track what actually matters and disburse funding accordingly. Clear and measurable objectives are needed for performance-based support to truly deliver. Generic objectives, like “contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation” (an objective of the CAP Strategic Plans), are insufficient to bring about meaningful change but must be linked to tracking progress against achieving quantified GHG emission reduction targets. The importance of tracking EU budget spending against national progress towards targets only grows, the more budget design shifts towards a policy focus.
- Ensure fair prices for farmers. If farmers cannot sell their products at decent prices, they will have little opportunity to prioritize a transition as they struggle to continue farming. It also has implications for EU budget design.
The full submission can be found here. Our comments were submitted in response to two surveys on implementing EU funding with Member States and regions and the performance of the EU budget. The European Commission’s proposal for the next long-term budget is expected in mid-July 2025.
