Foodrise, a non-profit working to \u201ctransform the food system\u201d to fight climate change and promote social justice, published \u201cCAP at the Crossroads<\/a>\u201d in February.<\/p>\n Martin Bowman, the senior campaigns manager at Foodrise, said<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s scandalous that such an unfair share of EU subsidies, worth billions of euros of EU taxpayers\u2019 money, are being pumped into propping up high-emissions meat and dairy production and distorting European diets.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the report, meat and dairy production received more than 10 times more CAP subsidies than fruit and vegetable production and over 16 times more than cereal production, even though animal products only make up around 32 percent of the calories and 64 percent of the protein consumed by people within the EU.<\/p>\n Globally, cereals, grains, and other plant-based foods are thought to make up approximately 82 percent<\/a> of people\u2019s calories and 63 percent of their protein. Furthermore, animal products cause up to 86 percent of embodied greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) from EU food production. Animal agriculture is the leading cause of climate change<\/a>, ahead of even fossil fuels, <\/p>\n \u2018CAP is at a crossroads\u2019<\/p>\n CAP (common agricultural policy) subsidies are a form of income support for farmers, and the European Parliament estimates<\/a> that more than 5.9 million farmers benefited from the system in 2022. However, CAP incentivizes animal farming, and the majority of funding goes to larger producers<\/a> rather than small farms<\/a>.<\/p>\n Foodrise noted that there are calls for EU agricultural subsidies to be reformed in order to better support the uptake of healthy and sustainable diets, net-zero targets, and farmers themselves, including the EU\u2019s Group of Chief Scientific Advisors, the European Court of Auditors, the World Bank, and the 2025 EAT-Lancet Commission<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cCAP is at a crossroads, and EU policymakers have a huge opportunity to switch course and take the action required to support a just transition to [a] healthy sustainable plant-rich diet,\u201d said Bowman. \u201cWhich we know have the potential to boost farmer incomes, reduce reliance on imports, mitigate climate change, improve Europeans\u2019 health, and restore nature.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong>Amsterdam Bans Ads For Meat And Fossil Fuels In Public Spaces<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \u2018Shameful\u2019 use of EU subsidies for animal products \u2018should end immediately\u2019<\/p>\n Lobbying from major meat and dairy companies has repeatedly undercut legislative conversations around the sector\u2019s negative impact and continued subsidization.\u00a0 More than 300 industrial agriculture lobbyists<\/a> attended 2025\u2019s COP30<\/a> climate talks in November, and a document that leaked last year indicated that the meat industry may have been behind<\/a> the backlash directed at 2019\u2019s EAT-Lancet Report.<\/p>\n In 2024, a study found that 82 percent of the EU\u2019s agricultural subsidies support animal foods, making high-impact diets \u201cartificially cheap<\/a>\u201d and thereby perpetuating an ongoing, unsustainable cycle of production and consumption.<\/p>\n \u201cThe shameful use of EU funds to promote meat and dairy to EU citizens \u2013 which is directly contrary to EU health and climate goals \u2013 should end immediately,\u201d said Bowman.<\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong>Meat-Heavy US Nutrition Guidelines Will Require Millions Of Acres Of New Farmland<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n ![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/animal-agriculture-eu-cap-subsidies-3-1200x675.jpeg\")
Adobe Stock Around 75 percent of EU meat is factory farmed<\/p>\n