{"id":1903,"date":"2019-03-28T15:54:09","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T14:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/?p=1903"},"modified":"2019-11-06T09:33:40","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T08:33:40","slug":"meps-vote-factory-farms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/issues\/nature-food\/1903\/meps-vote-factory-farms\/","title":{"rendered":"MEPs to vote on the future of factory farms"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 2 April, MEPs on the European Parliament\u2019s agriculture committee will weigh in on a European Commission plan to reform the EU\u2019s common agricultural policy<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The committee will vote on the rules that EU countries will have to follow when determining how to distribute subsidies to their farming sector.<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s common agricultural policy (CAP) has played a significant role in shaping European agriculture for the last half century, and is the single largest item in the EU\u2019s budget, accounting for 37% of the budget in 2018.<\/p>\n

The European Commission\u2019s CAP plan\u2019s stated aim is to increase the policy\u2019s climate and environmental credentials, in order to fulfil the EU\u2019s obligations under the Paris climate agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Since health, climate change and environmental objectives play a central role in the CAP, the European Parliament decided to give its environment (ENVI) and agriculture (AGRI) committees shared responsibility for the relevant parts of the CAP.<\/p>\n

On 14 February, the environment committee voted in favour of several amendments which, if adopted in the final CAP legislative text, would be an essential first step towards limiting intensive factory farming and addressing its substantial health, environmental and animal welfare impacts.<\/p>\n

The European Parliament\u2019s agriculture committee will now vote on the Commission plan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Greenpeace EU agriculture policy director Marco Contiero<\/strong> said: \u201cMEPs from the agriculture committee must show if they side with family farms or factory farms. Factory farms mistreat animals, heat the climate, pollute the environment and drive small farmers out of business. Science tells us that ecological farming can get us out of this mess and that we must produce and consume less and better meat and dairy. It\u2019s time for MEPs to get with the programme and stop taxpayers\u2019 money subsidising factory farms.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The key CAP reforms supported by the environment committee are:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Legal definitions to single out factory farming<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Two important definitions should be included in the CAP regulations to clarify what constitutes a factory farm:<\/p>\n