Background Organic
Is the new CAP overshooting its targets?
Organic farming occupies a prominent position in the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In Austria, where a relatively large proportion of farmers already work organically, there is a fear that the policy advocated by politicians in Brussels may actually backfire.
In the flagships of the European Commission - the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategy - member states are instructed to use at least a quarter of the agricultural area for organic production. The European Parliament committees on Agriculture and the Environment will vote on the Farm to Fork strategy for the first time next Thursday.
Austria is far ahead of many other Member States in organic farming. Based on the number of farms, 23% is organic and they already cultivate more than a quarter of the total acreage of agricultural land, partly due to schemes for mountain farmers.
Exclusive support
Subsidies play an important role in the success of organic farming in Austria. 44% of the second pillar budget goes to support organic farmers. In the negotiations on the new CAP, Austria argued for strengthening the current content of the second pillar budget with a focus on organic farming and other ecological services. In other words, conventional companies can also claim additional subsidy if they provide additional services in the field of nature and the environment. That is no longer the exclusive preserve of organic farmers.
And therein lies the pain point. Various interest groups fear that this implementation of the new CAP in the national strategic plan will be bad for the organic sector in Austria. Livestock farms in particular have had to invest heavily in adapted barns to meet animal welfare standards. If conventional companies consume part of the subsidies, the organic companies will never be able to recoup the extra costs.
The idea that those extra costs have to be removed from the market, as the European Commission and the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture want, is seen as unrealistic by the advocates. The production and thus the intensity of the organic companies must increase in order to reduce costs and meet the extra demand, they say. That goes against the values that biological stands for.
Jurphaas Lugtenburg
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