Nearly all the world’s farming subsidies are “harmful” to people and the planet, says the UN
NEWS: 90 per cent of all the money given to farmers in taxpayer-funded government hand-outs every year is damaging to people’s health, the environment and drives inequality, according to a new report released by three UN agencies ahead of the UN Foods Systems Summit next week.
The $540 billion in estimated total hand-outs is based on reliable data from only 88 countries, meaning that the report published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) may well be an underestimate of the total subsidies in the global food system.
The true cost of irresponsible spending by governments - all of which are attempts to shaw up unsustainable and harmful farming practices and satisfy powerful lobbying groups working only to make agriculture more financially viable - could be far higher.
According to the report, beef and milk production - some of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs) equalling European countries and oil and gas giants like Exxon and Shell as reported by Surge this month - are receiving the most in subsidies, driven further by a bias towards large industrialised livestock groups that are better able to access government money.
The problem is only set to worsen as subsidies are forecast to increase to around $1.8 trillion a year by 2030, furthering the planetary crisis, said the UN which added that support for meat and dairy in richer countries had to be reduced.
“This report is a wake-up call for governments around the world to rethink agricultural support schemes to make them fit for purpose to transform our agri-food systems and contribute to the four betters: better nutrition, better production, better environment and a better life,” said Qu Dongyu, the FAO director-general told the Guardian.
Marco Sánchez, FAO deputy director and co-author of the report, said: “Current support to farms needs transforming for today’s realities. For instance, the US is now aligning to the Paris climate agreement, which is very welcome, but there is no way they can achieve those climate goals if they don’t tackle the food industries.”
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Joy Kim, at UNEP, said: “Agriculture contributes a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, 70 per cent of biodiversity loss and 80 per cent of deforestation.” She said international finance pledges for climate change were $100 billion a year and $5 billion a year for deforestation. “But governments are providing $470 billion [in farm support] that has a huge damaging impact on climate and nature.”
Some countries are shifting the emphasis of their subsidy schemes away from supporting agriculture as it is right now and towards rewarding environmental stewardship and more sustainable farming practices, including the UK and China. However, the UN pointed out that financial support for agriculture also comes from the private sector in the form of loans.
Reforming agriculture support when opposed by vested interests would be challenging, said Sánchez, but was possible if efforts are made to highlight the costs to governments and by banks and other institutions in the financial sector ceasing lending to damaging activities.
According to Meat Atlas, a separate report compiled by Friends of the Earth, the food industry is benefiting from enormous financial backing from investors and bank loans. Research by campaign group Feedback found that in April last year, 3,000 investors gave $228 billion to the 35 largest meat and milk corporations. Between 2015 and 2020, $167 billion in loans were given by more than 200 banks, with financial institutions in the US, France and UK providing 51 per cent of total credit.
Andrew Gough is Media and Investigations Manager for Surge.
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