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Published 02/03/2020
The European Citizens' Initiative "Save bees and farmers," which Compassion in World Farming supports, aims to collect a million signatures to end the use of synthetic pesticides across Europe.
The intensification of crop production, with its use of monocultures and agro-chemicals, has led to overuse and pollution of ground- and surface water, soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and air pollution.
Intensive crop production is a key factor propping intensive animal agriculture. Factory farming exploits animals mercilessly, often keeping them in intensive confinement and treating them merely as commodities.
By saving bees and farmers, YOU are fighting against factory farming.
Please support the European Citizens' Initiative "Save bees and farmers," together with hundreds of thousands of citizens from across Europe. You can sign here.
With one million signatures gathered in at least seven European countries we will legally oblige the EU Commission to consider our demands.
The demands
- To reduce synthetic pesticide use incrementally by 80% in EU agriculture by 2030 and completely prohibit it by 2035 in order to protect bees and species diversity.
- To transform agriculture into a driving force for the re-establishment of biodiversity.
- To support farmers both professionally and financially in making their vital transition towards a bee friendly and ecological form of agriculture.
A re-allocation of agricultural subsidies is needed urgently!
Nearly 40% of the entire EU budget – 300 billion Euros – goes to the large industrial farms. This means that 20 percent of all farms receive 80 percent of the subsidies. It is precisely the small, medium sized and organic farms which are mostly likely to enhance biodiversity, that are being systematically neglected.
Within a period of only ten years 4 million of these smaller farms in the EU have been forced to close, while the area and market share of the large industrial farms has correspondingly increased. This has resulted in the number of farms falling from nearly 15 million to less than 11 million. It means that across the EU we have lost 400 000 farms per year, more than 30 000 per month and more 1 000 per day. This destructive process is still ongoing.
While small and medium-sized farms in the EU have been closing down, large industrial farms have been massively increasing in area and market share. These giants then sell produce such as cheap animal feed, which fuels the intensification of animal farming.
The causes of species loss and the closing of farms are closely connected with the current model of industrial agriculture across Europe, which is shaped by the application of pesticides, pressure of global competition and the practice of monoculture.
Let’s save bees and farmers!
Please sign and spread the European Citizens’ Initiative: https://www.savebeesandfarmers.eu/
