CMV: The EU should abolish intensive animal farming by 2030

Sat Jun 02 2018 15:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

completed

Mara-Daria Cojocaru

Munich School of Philosophy

Lecturer in Practical Philosophy

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Proposal

* There is a growing consensus, in ethics and in the general population,
that factory farmed meat is highly problematic (for various reasons,
some related directly to animals, others to humans and the environment).
* However, people still consume, in the main, such meat. There is a gap
between what people have reason to believe and how they act.
* Currently, we "privatize" this problem and hope for consumerism to
solve it, while what is needed is structural, political change.
* It is a political task to ban goods that are harmful to the community.
* The way we farm in Europe is mostly driven by the EU's Common
Agricultural Policy (CAP).
* Hence, the EU should work to abolish factory farming, just as it is
banning plastic waste.

Background Information

Financial support for producers under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is directly linked to compliance with animal welfare standards. Non-compliance can result in loss of financial aid.
The CAP provides special support grants for farmers who exceed minimum standards of animal welfare and animal housing as stipulated in Community law (see Council Directive 98/58/EC and The European Convention for the Protection of Animals kept for Farming Purposes)
- However, organizations such as Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) have criticized that between 2014 and 2020 only 0.5% of the CAP budget will be used for animal welfare payments

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