{"id":18343,"date":"2013-12-05T03:06:21","date_gmt":"2013-12-05T01:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?guid=d6b777f83adecc7448bf2c99b8297927"},"modified":"2013-12-04T19:13:07","modified_gmt":"2013-12-04T17:13:07","slug":"cap-reform-favours-greening-individual-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/cap-reform-favours-greening-individual-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"CAP reform favours the greening, not the individual industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPECIAL REPORT<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0European regulators and producers alike are confident that the change in the balance of direct payments, redrawn in the Common Agriculture Policy, will improve \u2018greening\u2019 practices and ultimately boost demand and productions for more natural foods.<\/p>\n

The new enironmental measures include the maintenance of permanent grasslands, crop diversification and areas of ecological interest designed to protect biodiversity.<\/p>\n

Between 2014 and 2020, over \u20ac100 billion will be invested to help farming meet the challenges of soil and water quality, biodiversity and climate change. 30% of direct payments will be linked to three environmentally-friendly farming practices.<\/p>\n

Farmers will receive payments if they carry out the measures rather get funding for their production of certain foods.<\/p>\n

This means that a cattle farmer carrying out the greening measures will receive the same funding as a soybean or beet producer using similar practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn budgetary terms,\u00a0one third of direct payments and one third of rural development\u00a0programmes\u00a0will enable investment in the environmental sustainability of European agriculture,\u201d\u00a0Dacian\u00a0Ciolo\u015f, the commissioner for agriculture and rural development, told a CAP advisory group in Brussels last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cMobilising\u00a0millions of farmers, specific measures will be implemented at European level to combat climate change, stem the loss of biodiversity, and improve the quality of soils and of our environment in general,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Natural foods\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bernard\u00a0Deryckere, the president of the European Natural\u00a0Soyfood\u00a0Manufacturers Association (ENSA<\/a>), thinks regulators should \u201cre-balance\u201d their support mechanisms towards so-called \u201cnatural foods\u201d, such as soy, which he says are better for the environment than animal-based foods.<\/p>\n

Soy currently accounts for 2% of the food sector. Dairy, including milk and cheeses, accounts for 15%. Their funding has largely reflected the market size.\u00a0Deryckere\u00a0would like to see his industry receive a share of those payments for its milk substitutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not allowed to call it soy milk, although it\u2019s an alternative to milk. We have to speak about soy drink. And it means for the moment that we are absolutely in this complete vacuum \u2026 In certain countries, milk is taxed at a lower level than plant-based foods and sometimes we are associated to soft drinks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The issue, for\u00a0Deryckere, is that plant-based foods need to be produced to feed animals, which then go back into the food chain, so overall have a better impact on the environment. Pasture accounts for an estimated two-thirds of global agricultural land, compared to one third for crops.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur view is that soy and plant-based foods can provide an answer as they consistently outperform animal products, when comparing their environmental impact in terms of CO2<\/sub> emissions, land and water use,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not against animal proteins. It\u2019s just about rebalancing the whole thing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Green beef<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beef and milk farmers believe that they can fit into the EU\u2019s environmental objectives for the agricultural sector.<\/p>\n

Indeed, a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0by Scotland\u2019s Rural College (SRUC), released in August 2013, on the impacts of the greener CAP on regional beef and sheep farms shows they will be affected little by the change.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost Scottish beef and sheep farms rely substantially on farm support payments. For these farms, the move from an historic payment to a\u00a0regionalised\u00a0flat rate payment will have more of an impact on farm profits than adopting greening measures,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n

Under the reform, farmers receive payments per hectare rather than the old method of historical records, in which they received support based on their previous production figures.<\/p>\n

Some Scottish beef and dairy farmers score well under the EU\u2019s definition of \u201cgreen\u201d farming, with extensive grasslands and verges lined with trees.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the exception is intensive beef farms where there is a very small, negative impact from greening CAP basic payments,\u201d the\u00a0SRUC\u00a0report says.<\/p>\n

Intensive farms may also receive funding if they carry out other greening measures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SPECIAL REPORT \/ Euro…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[],"supplier":[2317],"class_list":["post-18343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","supplier-european-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18343"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=18343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}