CMV: The EU should abolish intensive animal farming by 2030
Sat Jun 02 2018 15:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
completed
Munich School of Philosophy
Lecturer in Practical Philosophy
link active when debate starts
Tutorial on how to join debates
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
-
Further Reading
-
Factory farming in Europe: the impacts and our demands of the Common Agricultural Policy: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/cap_briefing_2012.pdf
-
CAP: Thinking Out of the Box Further modernisation of the CAP – why, what and how?:
http://www.risefoundation.eu/images/files/2017/2017_RISE_CAP_Full_Report.pdf
Debate Summary