AGRI

MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION BY COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

While current intensive agriculture and farming techniques cause damage to the
environment, they also provide a livelihood to millions of farmers across Europe. What can the EU do to ensure a green transition and the safeguarding of nature while taking into account the livelihood of agricultural producers?

Submitted by: Yonis Ali (NL), Anouschka Graaf (NL), Noor Laros (NL), Madelief Oosterveld (NL), Nicolas Vardon (Chairperson, SE)

The European Youth Parliament,

  1. Conscious that the agricultural industry is one of the largest emitters of nitrogen and methane which are harmful greenhouse gases,
  2. Aware that the agricultural industry represents a significant share of the European economy, consisting of 44 million jobs and 10.5 million farms,
  3. Noting with regret that the maximisation of crop yields1 clashes with the environmental goals set in the European Common Agricultural Policy,
  4. Alarmed by the perpetual decrease in the quality of topsoil, biodiversity, and crops due to intensive farming practises2, 
  5. Seriously concerned by the mismanagement of subsidies towards intensive farming while environmentally friendly and lower income farms are severely underfunded;
  1. Encourages Member States to provide farmers with further education on topsoil-friendly and environmentally-sustainable farming practices;
  2. Urges the Member States to subsidise environmentally-friendly products financed through the reallocation of taxes on environmentally harmful products;
  3. Invites Member States to create financially attractive programmes aimed at incentivising farmers to transition to more sustainable production methods;
  4. Further encourages the European Commission to open a dialogue with representatives of farmers assisted by third-party mediators to provide increased job security;
  5. Calls upon the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) to create a European wide index disclosing whether agricultural products follow environmentally friendly and healthy production standards;
  6. Requests the European Commission to foster transparency on the allocation of agricultural funds through:
    1. the enhancement of the financial transparency system by making it more accessible to the general public,
    2. ensuring farmers utilise their funds appropriately.
  1.  Maximisation of crop yields: refers to growing as many crops as possible in a given topsoil area.
  2.  Intensive farming: is a type of farming that relies on large amounts of resources and labour to increase production per unit area. It uses land, water and fertilisers to a large extent. It can be considered as a representation of economies of scale function in agriculture.