Private finance debt forces EU farms to scale up, says Greenpeace #NewsUnitedStates

The non-profit calls for funding from banks and the Common Agricultural Policy to support small-scale and ecological farming

Since 2007, the EU has lost almost 2mn commercial farms, most of them small-scale operations that have either closed or scaled up to industrial levels of production. At the same time, the number of “mega farms” has grown by more than half, finds a study commissioned by the Greenpeace European Unit.

The largest mega farms have experienced the most significant growth, says the study. It describes these farms as having an output exceeding €500,000 and says their number has almost doubled, with around 117,000 of these farms in the EU. In comparison, in 2007, there were 4.3mn small-scale commercial farms in the bloc, but by 2022 only 2.4mn remained, a decrease of 44 per cent in 15 years.

Greenpeace says this trend is problematic as pressure on farms to increase their economic output, is “often followed by more destructive industrial farming practices” and fewer, bigger farms means that economic power is concentrated in the hands of a smaller number of people.

Just 3 per cent of farms in the EU, namely the 117,000 most economically powerful, account for 39 per cent of the overall economic output of the bloc’s agricultural production, says the report.

Greenpeace says these larger farms also receive the biggest chunks of public and private financing.

Despite their growth, mega farms still only represent 8 per cent of farms in the EU, yet they receive 37 per cent of direct payment subsidies for commercial farms from the Common Agricultural Policy. On the other hand, small-scale commercial farms receive only 25 per cent of subsidies, despite more than two-thirds of commercial farms in Europe being small scale.

Access to private finance is also skewed in favour of the largest farms, with mega farms increasing their loans by nearly 90 per cent, says the report.

“This can create a vicious cycle, further fuelling the drive to ‘go big or go bust’, as farms need to scale up production in order to repay their loan,” it adds.

Greenpeace calls on European politicians to “reshape public subsidies” under the CAP and regulate private sector finance to support small-scale and ecological farming.

You can read the full report here.