Farmers “do not need to be convinced” that the ‘European Green Deal’ is the right way forward, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday 16 December.
At the annual conference on the agricultural outlook, the President justified the need for a “reformed and future-oriented” European agricultural policy. She praised the fact that the total area under organic farming is increasing and acknowledged that farmers have increased production “while reducing greenhouse gas, ammonia, and phosphate emissions”.
According to von der Leyen, as the ‘Farm to Fork’ and ‘Biodiversity’ strategies point out, more needs to be done.
By 2030, she says, “we need to reduce substantially the use and risk of chemical pesticides and the use of more hazardous ones; we need to reduce nutrient losses, while ensuring no deterioration of soil fertility, and we need to reduce the sales of antimicrobials for livestock and in aquaculture”. She also recalled the objective of achieving 25% of the total agricultural land area devoted to organic farming.
The Commission has published its agricultural outlook for 2020-2030. It notes that sustainability objectives and changing consumer demands “are expected to have an impact on European meat and dairy markets over the next decade”.
EU milk production is projected to grow at a moderate rate of 0.6% per year between 2020 and 2030 (a slower pace than in the past).
Meat. It expects per capita meat consumption in the EU to decrease by 1.1 kg (67.6 kg in 2030).
Beef production is expected to continue to decline, and consumption is expected to fall by 0.9 kg per capita. Pork production is expected to decline by 4.6% between 2020 and 2030. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)