By Good Food Good Farming
The Good Food Good Farming (GFGF) movement is in Brussels with a clear message from 15 countries: the EU must stop enabling industrial agriculture and instead support a just agroecological transition. As decision-makers decide the future of EU funding, GFGF present a new position paper and grassroots demands as part of a united EU-wide call to reform the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Report by Good Food Good Farming.
Today, national agrifood coalitions in the GFGF alliance are launching their joint position paper, “Towards a Just, Resilient & Future-Fit EU”, calling for deep structural reform. The paper is endorsed by 97 organisations – including ARC2020 – spanning farming, environmental, climate and animal welfare movements.
“We cannot let the next CAP continue to funnel public money to industrial multinational corporations while smaller, diverse farms disappear and our environment collapses,” said Henrik Maaß, from the German Platform of Associations on the CAP. “The crises we face are social, economic, and environmental. We need a holistic policy approach that treats these interconnected concerns as such.”
The joint position paper “Towards a Just, Resilient and Future-fit EU” consolidates the demands of national agrifood coalitions for the post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform. It is based on the positions of the following national agrifood coalitions: Agroecology in Action (Belgium), Food Transition Coalition (The Netherlands), Environmental Pillar (Ireland), Living Earth Coalition (Poland), Platform Aarde Boer Consument (The Netherlands), Platform of Associations on the CAP (Germany), Por Otra PAC (Spain), Voedsel Anders NL (The Netherlands), Voedsel Anders Vlaanderen (Belgium).
Currently, 80% of CAP subsidies go to just 20% of farms, enabling large-scale industrial farms to grow their profit while 44% of small farms have disappeared between 2007 and 2022. Therefore, national coalitions are calling for a fundamental reimagination of the CAP funding system.
“We must properly regulate agricultural markets and phase out the outdated hectare-based payment system. Public funds should be redirected to strengthen rural vitality. They should provide real support for farmers to deliver public goods and services, such as clean water, biodiversity protection, and animal welfare,” added Esmeralda Borgo from the Belgian coalition Voedsel Anders Vlaanderen.
The joint position covers a wide range of topics and shows how a reformed CAP must provide robust market regulation, subsidies allocated towards public goods, support for generational renewal and advancement of gender, social, and environmental justice.
This week in Brussels, in collaboration with IFOAM Organics Europe and the Access to Land Network, GFGF is meeting with members of the European Commission and Parliament to present their demands for the next CAP reform.
Alongside the new position paper, GFGF delivers Brussels decision-makers a recipe book, European Recipes for Change, which collects grassroots visions for better food policies. It was co-created by farmers, activists and citizens from nine countries during the European Days of Action in 2024 – GFGF’s annual hallmark campaign.
Key demands for the CAP post-2027
Read the full position paper here.
Good Food Good Farming (GFGF) is a pan-European alliance of civil society organisations and national coalitions, who are active at local, national and EU level aiming to create a fair and resilient food system, building bridges with farmers and farm workers, creating dialogue within and with rural communities, and advocating for change with decision makers.
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