Beef and lamb receive 580 times more in EU subsidies than legumes, a report has found, despite scientists urging people to get more of their protein from less harmful sources.
Analysis by the charity Foodrise found the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) provides “unfair” levels of support to meat-heavy diets that doctors consider unhealthy and climate scientists consider environmentally destructive.
It found beef and lamb were subsidised 580 times more than legumes in 2020, while pork was subsidised nearly 240 times more. Dairy, meanwhile, received 554 times more in subsidies than nuts and seeds.
there is no reason to believe the land would be rewilded
Why not?
because, at the moment, it’s economically productive. it’s hard to imagine the landowner would actively choose not to make money, so it would likely be sold off for development
I stipulated “if we eat less animal products”, so there would be less demand, especially without subsidies. And at least in my country you need to change the zoning of the land to build houses on it. Which is pretty difficult to do (european non-EU country, so I imagine in the EU it is even stricter). Especially as more and more countries want less sprawling out and more condensation of houses.
In this whole argument I also said that all these positive land use change effects would require less subsidies of animal products and more for plant based foods. I am aware that this is not yet the case and may take a long time, but it comes with benefits and is worth pursuing considering the environmental state of the world.