GNV News – November 8, 2024

An investigation by the Guardian revealed that €3.3 billion in European Union (EU) agricultural subsidies ended up in the hands of 17 billionaires who also appeared on Forbes’ 2022 rich list. These subsidies are provided as part of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which accounts for one third of the EU budget. The CAP is intended to support farmers and food production, and to protect the environment, as its purpose. However, in terms of support for farmers and food production, thousands of small farms have already closed, and the subsidies are not reaching the farmers who need support. This stems from the CAP awarding payments based on land area owned and from the lack of meaningful scrutiny of subsidy recipients.

The problem is not only inequality in subsidy receipts. Although the CAP aims to protect the environment, according to the European Court of Auditors in 2020 there is hardly any evidence that the CAP contributes to biodiversity on farmland. In addition, around 80% of the CAP budget goes to supporting carbon-intensive animal-based foods, further fuelling climate deterioration.

Because the CAP links subsidy amounts directly to cultivated acreage, smallholders are not only squeezed, but the result is an expansion of large-scale agriculture with a heavy environmental footprint, and the environmental protection aspect is not functioning. A review of agricultural subsidies is needed so that small-scale farmers practicing environmentally sustainable forms of agriculture are protected.

Learn more about agriculture around the world → “Agriculture and the environment: What dilemmas does modern agriculture face?”

Learn more about global agriculture and international reporting → “Problems facing global agriculture and international reporting”

Learn more about global inequality → “Why don’t the media report on the rapidly growing global inequality?”

Agrofert, which received substantial subsidies（led by one of the billionaires, former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš）（Photo: ŠJů / Wikimedia Commons [CC BY-SA 3.0]）