EU pumps four times more money into farming animals than growing plants

CAP scheme, which pays more to farms that occupy more land, drives perverse outcomes for a food transition', says study

The EU has made polluting diets artificially cheap" by pumping four times more money into farming animals than growing plants, research has found.

More than 80% of the public money given to farmers through the EU's common agriculture policy (CAP) went to animal products in 2013 despite the damage they do to society, according to a study in Nature Food. Factoring in animal feed doubled the subsidies that were embodied in a kilogram of beef, the meat with the biggest environmental footprint, from 0.71 to 1.42 (61p to 1.22).