“Unquestionably the EU now exerts the most important and effective influence on both British and Irish environmental policy and politics (McGowan, 1999: 175).” The European Union has developed itself into one of the world leaders in relation to environmental standards and its ability to apply legislation to its member states. Both, at present and in the past, challenges and opportunities have been encountered, and will continue to be encountered into the future. Indeed, Europe now directly impacts on food producers and manufacturers through the implementation of various policies such as the Nitrates Directive and issues surrounding Climate Change - both of which are the dealt with in this paper respectively. Through these and other policies it has carved itself a “green” image focused on safeguarding the health and well-being of its population. These will now act as the basis behind further initiatives into the future. The most significant of these in this area is the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) and it is it that is the focal point of the academic writing I have undertaken. From it I will discuss, most notably, how promising directives, such as the nitrates directive, with significantly beneficial core objectives, may be limiting our food producers in how it has been implemented. With the CAP being such a major part of the EU budget, although it has decreased sharply over the past 25 years, from “73% in 1985 to 41% in 2012” (European Commission, 2013), it still represents a major amount of total EU expenditure. This drop in budget, however, has led to other challenges for farmers, namely the implementation of milk quota in 1983. However, with quotas set to be abolished from 2015 onwards, a window of opportunity now graces the ...
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Cruelty toward animals, huge economic problems, and major health concerns are just three reasons why factory farming should be banned worldwide. Many people argue that factory farming is the only way to meet growing demands for food in the world today. However, factory farming is just not necessary, especially when it comes down to killing innocent animals in order to feed people. A way to put an end to the factory farming system is by buying our food from smaller, sustainable farms. These businesses still aim to profit from their labor, but that’s not their only objective. (The Issues: Factory Farming, n.d.) They simply will not sacrifice the health of the land or the quality of food simply to make a few extra dollars.
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Many consumers and farmers have discovered that living in an industrialized culture where the focus has become faster, bigger, and cheaper is not the best way to produce our food. Obsessed with productivity, the agriculture industry is reaping the negative consequences of creating an unsustainable environment for food production. Time and time again, the media captures stories regarding deadly bacterial contamination and dangerous pesticide contamination causing illness and death in our communities. The environment is also damaged and contaminated. This devastating trend, due to irresponsible farming practices as a result of the industrialization of the food industry, has become all too common. Returning to organic farming, which our grandparents referred to as farming, and reclaiming our food is not only our choice, it is our right.
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This was an internet-based study does through questionnaire. An internet-based study was viewed to be cost-effective, and more reliable than a mail survey. The questionnaire was developed and discussed with environmental social science researchers, researchers with expertise in agricultural sciences, advisors from SEGES (the Danish Knowledge Center for Agriculture) and four farmers. Socio-economic and farm information was also taken into consideration besides just the
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One of the reasons for loss in biodiversity is alteration of habitats. A habitat is the natural environment in which a species of living organism lives. If the habitat of a species is changed, it will cause the species to die or migrate to other places where it can find its natural habitat. There are many ways in which the habitat of plants and animals can be altered. One of them is land use changes. Since the beginning of human life, human beings have been changing land use for farming. Large areas of forests have been cleared by humans to increase the area of farming to satisfy their growing needs. Many biodiversity-rich landscape characteristics have been lost due to intensive farming (Young, Richards, Fischer, Halada, Kull, Kuzniar, Tartes, Uzunov & Watt, 2007). For example, traditional farming was replaced by private farms in Europe after the First World War causing an immense change in land use patterns. Another major proble...
The European Union’s environmental policy is vast and complicated. It applies to every country under the Union’s domain and its criteria must be met for any state wishing to seek membership. The European Union was not the original forerunner in environmental politics; in fact, the United States “took on a leadership role in preparations for the 1972 United Nations (UN) Conference on the Human Environment” (Kelemen 2009). However, in the 1970s (1973 to be specific) as the US pulled away from being the environmental leader the EU emerged with it’s seven ‘Environmental Action Plans’ (EAP) (Pearce 1998). The original aim of environmental policy was very traditional, focusing on protecting species and improving the quality of life but today the underlying aim of the policy “is to enhance natural capital, provide a resource-efficient economy and safeguard people’s health” (European Commission 2013). I will first open with a brief history of the environmental policy, followed by its success and failures using concrete examples and conclude with alterations or alternatives to the policy in order to make it more successful across the European Union.