*[Enwl-eng] No April showers
ENWLine
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April showers are meant to bring May flowers. Not in the past two years. Not this year. Crops dry up and a massive shortfall is to be expected. It’s because the climate is changing faster than estimated, calling for immediate transformation to sustainable framing. Join our call to the European Parliament! |
Hi,
Soil runs like sand through the farmer's hand. It turns to dust. After severe droughts over the last two years, it’s kicking in again. Germany, Italy, Poland and big parts of South-East Europe already show a massive rainfall deficit. [1] The first to get hit are farmers. Their crops have already dried up and it’s only May. [2]
We depend on our farmers a lot. They provide us with fresh food - every single day. But from farm to fork, food production heavily heats up the climate and contributes an estimated one quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions. [3]
Yet farmers get a lot of subsidies from the EU, regardless of the way they farm and its impact on the climate. Over the next few weeks, the European Parliament is debating what conditions the EU should link to farming subsidies. And that opens up the opportunity for us to make it very clear: We only want farmers to receive taxpayers' money only if they stop heating up the planet.
Our plan is to pressure the MEPs who can influence the debate by sending them direct and public messages, so they can’t hide. But it’s not just our community -- we are joining forces with over 80 organisations and their networks. Because together, we are stronger. Together we can be louder than agribusiness and their lobbyists. Join us.
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Imagine your pay slip showing how much of your salary comes from the EU. For a farmer in Germany it’s 40%, in Sweden it’s close to 60%, and it can even go up to 88% in Slovakia. [4] Most of these subsidies are given based on the size of land farmers work on. Nothing else.
Unfortunately, far too often farmers stick to bad methods of farming: polluting us with pesticides, killing bees and birds and heating up the atmosphere. We urgently need them to transition to sustainable farming without chemical fertilisers and weedkillers. Sustainable farming emits lower levels of greenhouse gases and is better suited for droughts. [5]
The European Parliament is now shaping what the policies that cover farming in Europe (Common Agriculture Policy or CAP for short) will look like for the next seven years. The importance of CAP becomes obvious when you look at the huge amount of money we are talking about. It’s the biggest part of the European budget - 58 billion Euros a year [6] - which is the national income of Bulgaria. [7]
Now is the best time to make our voices heard to our MEPs. They have to agree in June on a proposal which will be voted on in autumn. And we want a proposal giving priority to climate and biodiversity, supporting farmers in the EU to better withstand the droughts of the future. That is what we need you to add your voice to.
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With our call to action today we join forces with the European alliance calling for Good Food Good Farming. More than 80 organisations from 16 EU member states mobilise today - we, WeMove Europe, contribute close to one million Europeans - together we can make our voices heard!
In solidarity,
David, Jörg (Germany) and the entire WeMove Europe team
References:
[1]
https://edo.jrc.ec.europa.eu/edov2/php/index.php?id=1000
[2]
https://www.farminglife.com/country-and-farming/arable-sector-praying-rain-due-drought-2858723
[3]
https://ourworldindata.org/food-ghg-emissions shows detailed all
greenhouse gas emissions linked to the whole supply chain of food production.
Narrowing it down to arable land it’s still 12.3%
https://www.boell.de/sites/default/files/agricultureatlas2019_web_190507.pdf?dimension1=ds_agriculture_atlas,
page 32 and page 62
[4]
https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/food-farming-fisheries/farming/documents/cap-expenditure-graph5_en.pdf
[5]
https://www.opb.org/news/article/organic-farming-better-suited-for-drought-conditions-study-finds/
[6]
https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/key-policies/common-agricultural-policy/cap-glance_en#howitspaidfor
[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)
WeMove Europe is an independent and values-based organisation that seeks to build people power to transform Europe in the name of our community, future generations and the planet.
WeMove Europe is funded by donations from our community across Europe. Can you chip in with a few euros a month and help make sure we can move fast to win the campaigns that matter to all of us? DonateDonate
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WeMove Europe SCE mbH | Planufer 91 Berlin | www.wemove.eu | Privacy policy
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