Scientists urge EU to stop intensive farming
08 November 2019
Over 2,500 scientists have urged the European Commission and the European Parliament to reform the EU common agricultural policy (CAP). According to the representatives of the European Ornithologists Union, the European Mammal Foundation, the Societas Europaea Herpetologica, the Societas Europaea Lepidopterologica and Butterfly Conservation Europe, the EU agri-environmental policy is insufficient and underfunded.
Additionally, the current CAP allegedly tends to support intensive farming and monocropping posing threats to biodiversity. In particular, the scientists claim that sharp declines in the populations of farmland birds and insects across EU in the recent decades were due to intensification of farming practices.
At the moment, EU farmers receive subsidies for the farmland area under their operation with the possibility to apply for additional funding aimed at implementation of environment-protective measures. The annual CAP budget under current conditions is € 60 billion.