Euroviews. Farmers have nothing to fear from green and animal welfare reforms

We currently face a triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. 

To solve these crises and secure a healthy future for people, nature, animals and our planet, global agricultural reforms are both essential and inevitable.

The way we produce food will shape our very existence on this planet. What’s needed is a sustainable and resilient food system — of the kind set out in the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy — that delivers healthy food in a way that supports decent farmer livelihoods and thriving rural communities. 

It must also lower emissions, and protect the environment and biodiversity, as well as animal welfare. Business as usual is simply not an option because our current trajectory is heading towards extinction.

One thing is for certain: our current food system is not working for farmers. It’s no surprise they have taken to the streets across Europe to protest. 

Farmers are trapped in an unfair system that has failed them, the public, animals, nature and our planet. 

They struggle to make a living due to low profit margins, competition from larger industrial farms, rising energy costs, and more extreme weather which, ironically, is being made worse by intensive farming practices.

Meanwhile, this same system sees billions of farmed animals confined in intensive systems which are immensely cruel and killing our planet. 

Those reaping the real profits from the current food system are the wider food sector, including retailers, as well as a handful of "big ag" multinationals who have announced record profits in recent years.

Significant changes are inevitable and we will all have a role to play in this transformation towards a more nature-positive food system. 

Most small-scale farmers have nothing to