Is agriculture still an important activity in Europe?

Agriculture now represents less than 10% of the European Union total GDP, yet it plays an essential role in the European culture, environment and social situation. Indeed, agriculture occupies a great part of the territory and help maintains the dynamic of many rural areas. It provides wholesome food for the population and is thus key for European food security. More than 10% of the EU population works in agriculture and much more in the agrofood sector: maintaining a dynamic agriculture is thus essential to the struggle against unemployment in Europe.

Does European agriculture destroy the environment?

Bad agricultural practices have very harmful effects on the environment. This is the case with intensive grain monoculture, which uses great quantities of chemicals; of industrial livestock production, which disposes of tons of manure on the soil, and of intensive fruit and vegetable production that wastes water through irrigation. On the other hand, sustainable family farming can help maintain a healthy and rich environment through good agronomic modes of production (rotation of crops, polyculture which combines livestock production and crops, etc.). Most of the farmers dutifully care for the environment because they know the future of their activity is at stake.

Is the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) too expensive?

The Common Agricultural Policy represented 44.5 billion euros in 2003, which is about 35% of the EU budget. However, as the EU budget represents less than 1.2 % of the EU GDP (a drop of water compared to national budgets), what the EU spends overall for agriculture is no more than 0.4% of its GDP. The CAP is aimed at ensuring food security for all Europeans: spending 0.4% of our global wealth for this goal is not excessive. 

Is it true that every European cow receive as much as 1 dollar per day of EU subsidies?

No. 2.8 billion euros were spent on the dairy sector in 2003 from the CAP budget. That same year, there were more than 20 billion dairy cows in the EU. The myth of 1 dollar per cow per day spent by the EU has no basis.

Do the CAP subsidies hurt poor farmers in developing countries?

Yes... and no! CAP subsidies are currently used to export European farm products below their cost of production, which depresses the price of many commodities worldwide and thus prevents poor farmers in developing countries from selling their goods at a fair price. Because of dumping, farmers worldwide can’t make a fair living from their hard work and many face significant poverty (paradoxically the majority of the 850 million people who suffer hunger in the world are farmers). However, subsidies are not necessary to be blamed, but rather the agricultural policy that prioritizes food export. Subsidies are legitimate if they are not used to support food exportations. For example, they can be very helpful to support sustainable agricultural production aimed at the EU internal market. 

Are agricultural prices too high?

No. While food for consumers is often very expensive, the price received by the farmers is very low, sometimes even below the cost of production. The agrofood industry and the retail sector receive up to 85% of the final price paid by the consumers, while farmers receive only 15% of it. Over the last decades, the prices of agricultural products sold by farmers have decreased dramatically, while the price paid by consumers have kept increasing. This is because the agrofood industry and the retail sector have increased their margin, at the expense of both the consumers and the farmers.