With just three weeks to go before the European Parliament vote on reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), you can take action for greener farming.
A new Facebook tool from Friends of the Earth Europe – Good Crop / Bad Crop – explains the problem of fields and fields of the same crops being grown across Europe (known as monoculture) and the advantages of crop rotation – when farmers grow a range of different crops and change what they grow in each field every year.
Through Facebook you can contact your Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and ask them to make sure the CAP encourages farmers to use crop rotation.
The simple choice for farmers between planting different crops on their farm or growing the same crops year after year can have a major effect on the environment and wildlife.
Crop rotation has many benefits – healthier soil, more wildlife, less pesticide use and pollution, fewer climate-changing emissions.
Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy gives farmers public money (subsidies) to help cover their costs. If this money was used to encourage farmers to rotate what they grow it would protect soil, wildlife and our environment for future generations.
Right now politicians in the European Parliament are deciding the future of the Common Agricultural CAP. They will vote in the week of 11th March. We still have time to show them that we want a green and healthy environment!
We can influence their decisions about farming and our countryside. By using the CAP to encourage different crops instead of monocultures, we can have agriculture in the future which is kind to nature, uses fewer pesticides, does not make climate change worse, and additionally stops small farms going out of business.
Visit Facebook to find out more about crop rotation and contact your MEPs NOW.
