Public money should be awarded to farmers that deliver public goods. That was the main message speakers at the 12th European Organic Congress conveyed today to a 200-strong audience at the University of Vienna.
During the main plenary ‘Organic on every table – The future of food and farming, a transformative approach for the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)’, the participants focused on the key elements of the revision and the importance to boost climate and environmental ambition.
Jan Plagge, IFOAM EU President, emphasised the importance of delivering public money for public goods, commenting: “Member States will fail to deliver results adapted to national realities if the new CAP does not clearly prioritise a transition towards sustainable agriculture through ring-fencing of money for ‘Eco-schemes’ and agri-environmental measures. Farmers can become eco-entrepreneurs if 70% of the CAP money would be guaranteed for the protection of the climate and the environment.”
“Farmers can become eco-entrepreneurs if 70% of the CAP money would be guaranteed for the protection of the climate and the environment”
The importance of transformation was also reflected in the morning plenary ‘Fair Play and Fair Pay for a more sustainable European agricultural and food system’. Speakers told the congress how, today, organic farming is playing a leading role in making European farmers’ livelihoods more sustainable. But they also argued that it was important to ban unfair trading practices and to set rules for fair trading practices across the whole food production chain, while also setting goals to protect our water, soil, air and biodiversity.
Picture: IFOAM EU Congress, Vienna (via Twitter)