{"id":1034,"date":"2018-04-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/uncategorized\/1034\/investigation-eu-subsidises-europes-most-polluting-livestock-farms\/"},"modified":"2019-11-06T09:33:55","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T08:33:55","slug":"investigation-eu-subsidises-europes-most-polluting-livestock-farms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/issues\/nature-food\/1034\/investigation-eu-subsidises-europes-most-polluting-livestock-farms\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigation: EU subsidises Europe\u2019s most polluting livestock farms"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAP payments fund factory farms leaking ammonia into air and water<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSubsidies from the European Union\u2019s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are supporting some of Europe\u2019s most polluting livestock farms, a Greenpeace investigation has revealed.
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Over half (51%) <\/span>of the farms examined in seven EU countries received CAP payments totalling \u20ac104 million <\/span>in the last year reported<\/span>, despite being the highest emitters of ammonia in their countries. The research compared CAP direct payments and the EU\u2019s registers of pollution from industrial facilities. <\/span><\/p>\n

Ammonia runoff from fertilizers or manure slurry leads to the rapid growth of algae in rivers, lakes and seas, choking plants and animals of oxygen. Ammonia also causes air pollution from fine particulate matter, which impacts human health.<\/span><\/p>\n

**A detailed overview of the research is available here**<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Marco Contiero, Greenpeace EU agriculture policy director,<\/strong> said: <\/span>\u201cEnvironmental protection is one of the objectives of Europe\u2019s farm policy, but the evidence shows that bad behaviour is constantly rewarded. Ammonia pollution is just the tip of the iceberg. Europe continues to pump cash into livestock factory farms despite their disastrous impact on the local environment, the climate and public health. The EU\u2019s Common Agricultural Policy must instead support agriculture that works with nature, not against it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

**A detailed overview of the research is available here**<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The research, which was carried out in collaboration with investigative journalists, examined farms in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands listed in the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR). Agricultural installations are required to submit data to the E-PRTR if they emit more than 10,000 kg of ammonia per year, and to the Industrial Emission Directive register if they have space for over 40,000 poultry, 2,000 pigs or 750 sows.<\/p>\n

Of the 2,374 livestock farms in these countries emitting high enough levels of ammonia to be included in the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register <\/span>in the last year reported<\/span>, <\/span>1,209<\/span> received CAP payments totalling at least \u20ac104 million per year. The CAP annually allocates \u20ac59 billion in subsidies, roughly 40 per cent of the EU\u2019s total budget. <\/span><\/p>\n

The research also exposed the lack of a proper monitoring system to provide data on agricultural pollution in Europe. For ammonia, the only pollutant consistently reported at EU level, existing data covers only a small percentage of total emissions from agriculture. Farms in Austria in the Industrial Emissions Directive register were also examined, but none individually met the ammonia threshold to be included in the E-PRTR, despite high levels of ammonia emissions in the country. 36 of these farms received \u20ac1.6 million in CAP payments.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next steps for CAP<\/strong><\/p>\n

On 2 May, the European Commission is expected to publish a draft of the next EU budget, starting in 2020, which will include CAP spending. By early June, the Commission is also expected to publish its proposal for a reform of the CAP. <\/span><\/p>\n

Contact:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Greenpeace EU press desk: <\/strong>+32 (0)2 274 1911, pressdesk.eu@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Marco Contiero, Greenpeace EU agriculture policy director<\/strong>:<\/strong> +32 (0)2 274 1906, <\/span>marco.contiero@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

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For breaking news and comment on EU affairs: www.twitter.com\/GreenpeaceEU<\/a><\/p>\n

Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace. Greenpeace does not accept donations from governments, the EU, businesses or political parties.<\/span><\/p>\n

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CAP payments fund factory farms leaking ammonia into air and water Subsidies from the European Union\u2019s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are supporting some of Europe\u2019s most polluting livestock farms, a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[26,41],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-1034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature-food","tag-farming","tag-waterpollution","p4-page-type-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2308,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions\/2308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=1034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}