Building a new CAP by farmers, for farmers with the European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture
EIT Food has partnered with the European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture (EARA), to launch the CAP Pilot Program. The new initiative, which launched in June 2024, aims to enable a farmer-centric approach to the creation of the post 2027 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and provide crucial insight into creating a better agricultural policy designed by pioneering farmers.
This project aims to reduce the high level of bureaucracy in the current CAP and create meaningful subsidies for European farmers. This will ensure the future CAP can support the livelihoods of Europe’s producers and incentivise their continued stewardship of Europe’s biodiversity and natural resources.
This work supports EIT Food’s three Missions, working towards transforming our food system so that people and planet can thrive. To scale the systems approach necessary to tackle our shared challenges, we must prioritise regenerative agricultural practices which empower farmers and contribute to a circular food economy.
Working with EARA to prioritise farmers in the post-2027 CAP
The European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture (EARA) is a farmer-led organisation that advocates for the acceleration and scaling of regenerative agriculture across Europe. EARA is striving to enable the transformation of our agrifood ecosystems from conventional agriculture through to agriculture which prioritises environmental, economic and social regeneration.
In response to challenges raised around the bureaucracy of the current CAP, which often fails to provide sufficient benefit to farmers, EARA is calling for the post-2027 CAP to center farmers in order to truly benefit food systems.
“Prioritising farmers in the post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy is essential for a sustainable food system. By focusing on their insights, we can reduce bureaucracy and provide meaningful support, enabling farmers to adopt regenerative practices. This partnership with EARA aims to influence future policies that benefit both agricultural productivity and environmental health.”
“Farming with nature for highest food, fiber and public good productivity is an immensely complex task. Agricultural policies must develop the capacities of individual farmers, not alienate their expertise and motivation by prescribing piecemeal actions for partially arresting externalities of conventional production systems.”
EIT Food is funding a proof-of-concept study through EARA which will explore validating Net Primary Productivity for performance measurement of European agricultural land management. The assessment, in addition to Eurostat style data of inputs and outputs, will be based on two key indicators which measure agronomical and ecological performance: photosynthesis and soil cover.
Using these findings, EIT Food and EARA aim to demonstrate that farms with higher photosynthesis and more soil cover on their fields produce both better yields and see environmental benefits (as they require fewer inputs, such as fertilisers). After collecting this data from European farmers, EARA hopes to influence future performance-based payments under the post-2027 CAP. This will help to generate a simple, meaningful and long-term subsidy system where both farmers and the natural environment can thrive.
Find out more
The survey will run until the end of August and is open to European farmers.
