{"id":445532,"date":"2026-02-19T13:41:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/02\/19\/pac-a-carne-e-latticini-tre-volte-piu-fondi-che-ai-vegetali-secondo-lo-studio-di-foodrise\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T14:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T13:36:21","slug":"cap-funding-meat-vegetables-foodrise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/02\/19\/cap-funding-meat-vegetables-foodrise\/","title":{"rendered":"EU CAP subsidies overwhelmingly favor meat and dairy over plant-based crops, Foodrise study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Beef and lamb farms<\/b>, which involve\u00a0high greenhouse gas emissions<\/b>, received 580 times more\u00a0subsidies from the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy<\/b>\u00a0(CAP) in 2020 than legume crops such as lentils and beans. In absolute terms, 8 billion euros went to sheep and cattle production, compared with 14 million for legumes. Similarly, the\u00a0dairy sector<\/strong>\u00a0received\u00a0554 times more CAP funds<\/strong>\u00a0than\u00a0nuts and seeds<\/strong>\u00a0(16 billion compared with 29 million). This was revealed in a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0entitled ‘The CAP at a crossroads – Reforming European CAP subsidies to support healthy and sustainable diets’, released today by\u00a0Foodrise<\/b><\/a>, a nonprofit organization active in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, committed to a more sustainable and equitable agri-food system.<\/p>\n

Overall, Foodrise’s calculations, covering the last year of the old CAP cycle (2014-2020), show that the EU allocated\u00a0three times more funding\u00a0<\/strong>to meat and dairy production than to plant-based foods and alternative proteins: the meat and dairy sectors together benefited from around 39 billion euros (77 percent of CAP funds and 23 percent of the entire EU budget for 2020), while fruit and vegetable producers received only 3.6 billion (10 times less) and cereal producers\u00a02.4 billion<\/strong>\u00a0(16 times less).<\/p>\n

According to the non-profit organisation, the damage caused by such a choice in terms of\u00a0environmental impact<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 in addition to that in terms of health \u2013 is objective because ”\u00a0animal-based foods are estimated to cause between 81-86 percent of the embodied greenhouse gas emissions from EU food production, while only providing an estimated 32% of calories and 64% of protein consumed in the EU.” Furthermore, “on average,\u00a0beef causes an estimated 21-62 times more emissions compared with pulses, per gram of protein \u2013 and pulses have benefits for fixing nitrogen in soils and health.” This situation could be attributed to the size of the farm for the\u00a0allocation of funding<\/a>. In this sense, animal production has an advantage: meat and dairy products require larger areas than crop production because, in addition to grazing land, farmers always use additional land to grow feed for their animals.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Martin Bowman<\/strong>, campaign manager at Foodrise, “It\u2019s scandalous that such an unfair share of EU subsidies, worth billions of euros of EU taxpayers\u2019 money, is being pumped into propping up high-emissions meat and dairy production and distorting European diets.” In his view, “plant-based foods should receive a\u00a0fairer share<\/strong>\u00a0of CAP subsidies, and the EU, in line with the recommendations of the recent\u00a0strategic dialogue on the future of EU agriculture<\/b><\/a>\u00a0(launched by Commission President\u00a0Ursula Von Der Leyen<\/strong>\u00a0in early 2024 to facilitate dialogue between farmers, supermarkets, scientists, and environmental groups, ed.), should introduce a\u00a0plant-based food action plan<\/strong>, create a\u00a0fund for a just transition<\/strong>\u00a0in the agri-food system,\u00a0discontinue the use of EU funds<\/strong>\u00a0for the promotion and marketing of meat and dairy products, and promote the\u00a0adoption of plant-based diets<\/strong>\u00a0in public institutions such as schools and hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n

After all, there are numerous benefits to wider European adoption of what Foodrise defines as the\u00a0Planetary Health Diet<\/strong>. These include a\u00a061 percent reduction in emissions from agricultural activities<\/strong>, a\u00a025 percent decrease in fertilizer use<\/strong>,\u00a0higher wages<\/strong>\u00a0for workers in the sector,\u00a0reduced\u00a0dependence on imports<\/strong>,\u00a0fewer<\/b>\u00a0deaths from pollution<\/strong>,<\/strong>\u00a0and the potential to\u00a0prevent 10 to 39 percent of cancers<\/strong>. Furthermore, the report notes that the European market for plant-based products and alternative proteins is growing steadily and could reach 83.3 billion by 2030, creating more than 400,000 skilled jobs by 2040.<\/p>\n

Despite this, according to Bowman, it remains difficult to look to the future with optimism. “The real risk is that, with crucial decisions on the next\u00a0Multiannual Financial Framework<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(MFF) 2028-2034<\/strong>, meat and dairy products will continue to receive the lion’s share of funding, and the EU will continue to scale back environmental commitments under\u00a0pressure from agro-industrial lobbies<\/strong>\u00a0and the rise of the far right,” he explains.<\/p>\n

Words that sound like an appeal to the Commission, just as the Berlaymont Building finds itself managing\u00a0pressure<\/b><\/a>\u00a0– often of the opposite kind – from\u00a0European farmers<\/strong>\u00a0on crucial issues such as new\u00a0green policies<\/strong>\u00a0for the primary sector, the contested\u00a0configuration of CAP funds<\/strong>\u00a0in the new MFF, and the trade agreement with\u00a0Mercosur<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A survey by the non-profit organisation reveals that in 2020, 77 per cent of CAP subsidies went to animal products with high greenhouse gas emissions and harmful to health. The NGO is calling for greater fairness in the distribution of funds and an action plan for plant-based foods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7899,"featured_media":356575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25709],"tags":[25855,26477,26050,33102,26384,33103,31277,33104],"class_list":["post-445532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agrifood-en","tag-agriculture-en","tag-carne-en","tag-climate-en","tag-foodrise","tag-fondi-en","tag-legumi","tag-pac-en-2","tag-vegetali"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7899"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445532"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445538,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445532\/revisions\/445538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}