What should EU farmers do to protect the environment?

How healthy are Europe’s soil and plant species?

More than 80% of habitats are in poor condition, according to the European Environment Agency (EEA), and only 27% of the assessed species have a “good” conservation status.

What should farmers do to protect the environment?

Over the past few decades, the EU has introduced and developed directives to protect water, birds and habitats, and to control nitrates. Laws affecting farmers range from the limits of when nitrogen fertilizers can be used to protect natural areas other than farms altogether.

In 2021, the EU tied a new set of green strings to the aid scheme of the common agricultural policy (CAP), many of which came. it came into effect in 2023, and dedicated a large part of the budget to green projects. To receive CAP payments, farmers will have to comply with “good agricultural and environmental conditions” such as maintaining an average of permanent pastures and fields, and protecting wetlands and grasslands.

But in the past year, many of the CAP’s green laws have been weakened, delayed or repealed. The EU abandoned the requirement to allocate a small proportion of land to non-directly productive sectors, such as planting trees and fallow, and exempted all farms smaller than 10 hectares (25 acres) in the rules.

Another package – the Farm to Fork project – included a proposal for sustainable management of pesticides, which would have confirmed the European Commission’s goal of halving the use and harm of pesticides by 2030. it was also removed.

And the law on natural regeneration, the cornerstone of the EU’s green deal, was heavily watered down and only passed in June. It now sets goals to protect and restore nature but does not directly force farms to change. The law has provisions to wet peatlands and help birds recover, for example, but emphasizes that these are voluntary for farmers and landowners.

What else is the EU planning?

In September, farmers, traders, consumer groups and environmentalists held a policy consultation, at the suggestion of the commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, and their shared vision is expected to feed the commission’s plan present in the coming months.

The proposal calls for “urgent, desirable and feasible change” in farm and food practices, with financial support to help farmers get there. It also believes that Europeans are consuming more animal protein than doctors and scientists recommend, and calls for a shift to plant-based diets supported by better education, stronger marketing and voluntary purchase of farms in intensively farmed areas.

Does the EU have an obligation to clean up its farms?

The EU signed a global agreement in 2022 that promised to halt and even reverse biodiversity loss by the end of the decade. It has also pledged to achieve zero emissions by 2050.

No goal is impossible without addressing the agricultural sector, which faces less pressure to be green than many other sectors of the economy, and makes less progress. In the two decades from 2000 to 2020, EU member states reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by 40% but reduced their agricultural production by 10%. The transport sector made such slow progress.