{"id":120553,"date":"2026-07-07T17:15:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T15:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/?p=120553"},"modified":"2026-07-07T17:49:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T15:49:01","slug":"stuck-in-the-past-eu-livestock-strategy-presents-no-route-out-for-a-sector-in-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/fr\/stuck-in-the-past-eu-livestock-strategy-presents-no-route-out-for-a-sector-in-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Stuck in the past: EU Livestock Strategy presents no route out for a sector in crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels, 7 July 2026 \u2013 <\/em><\/strong>The European Commission today published its Livestock Strategy and long-awaited Protein Plan, but the two send starkly different signals about Europe\u2019s food future. While the Protein Plan recognises the need for plant-rich diets and home-grown protein crops, the Livestock Strategy doubles down on an industrial model that is hurting animals, nature, smaller-scale farmers and rural communities. <\/em><\/p>\n

Rather than delivering a coherent vision for a sustainable and resilient protein system, the Commission has chosen to peddle polluting industry narratives, paying only lip service to the urgent challenges affecting the sector. This leaves the EU without a clear plan for delivering on its climate, health, animal welfare and rural development goals, warns the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) Europe\u2019s largest network of environmental NGOs.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Isabel Paliotta<\/strong>, Senior Policy Officer for Sustainable Food Systems, said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commission seems bent on painting a rosy picture of an industry dominated by Big Agri corporations who profit as they pollute. This is not a “Strategy” for farmed animals, the communities suffering from the pollution of industrial rearing, or for the farmers trying to rear animals ethically and sustainably. <\/em>Once again, this is profits before everything and everyone else.<\/em>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Beating the drum for powerful polluters <\/strong><\/p>\n

What Europe needed today was a coherent and credible vision for how we rear animals on EU farms: one that would help farmers build viable businesses, sustain rural communities, improve animal welfare, protect public health, reduce air, water and soil pollution, and restore nature.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Commission has delivered a patchwork of vague aspirations, woolly language, and Big Meat and Dairy industry narratives, with few concrete measures to help farmers navigate the inevitable transition already underway. At a time of environmental and economic emergency, the EEB cautions that this \u201cStrategy\u201d reads less like a credible roadmap for the future than a defence of a destructive status quo.<\/p>\n

Across Europe, animal farming is becoming increasingly concentrated in vast industrial facilities controlled by fewer and fewer very large companies. These mega-farms are major drivers of water, soil and air pollution, placing growing pressure on rural communities and ecosystems.<\/p>\n

They also fuel mounting health risks. Intensive animal rearing is linked to infectious disease outbreaks and widespread nitrate pollution, threatening drinking water and, increasingly, human health. The EEB advocates for a fair transition in the EU\u2019s animal farming sector to bring it back within planetary limits \u2013 that means reducing overall animal numbers while shifting away from intensive confinement towards more extensive, higher welfare farming.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dodging serious climate action, again<\/strong><\/p>\n

The EEB is deeply concerned that policymakers have chosen to parrot the industry myth of the special characteristics of \u201cbiogenic\u201d methane emissions, which is frequently misused to distract from the vital importance of cutting methane emissions to combat the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

In doing so, the Commission has also missed an opportunity to protect people’s health as methane is a major driver of ground-level ozone pollution. Exacerbated by extreme temperatures, this toxic smog has devastating consequences for both human and environmental health, as highlighted by the EEB during the last heatwave<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the Commission acknowledges the need to cut emissions, it has also chosen to, once again, shield EU agriculture from taking responsibility for those emissions. Without any binding targets in sight and a focus on improving monitoring and promoting technical solutions (with reported overstated benefits<\/a>), the EEB warns that the sector will fail to contribute its fair share of emission reductions, with the burden falling on others.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mathieu Mal<\/strong>, Senior Policy Officer for Agriculture and Climate, said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only special treatment methane emissions should be getting is priority reduction. We cannot allow misleading industry-driven narratives to enter policymaking and stand in the way of tackling the climate crisis.<\/em>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Notes for editors<\/strong><\/p>\n

Recent investigations: Revealed: Europe’s new meat tycoons<\/em><\/a> (July 2026); Concentrated Power: Who Controls Europe’s Animal Protein Supply Chains<\/em><\/a> (July 2026); The Face of European Farming<\/em><\/a> (June 2026), Pigs, Poultry, and Pollution: Investigating Intensive Agriculture<\/em><\/a> – DeSmog series (June 2026), Poland\u2019s packed \u2018ghost farms\u2019 present threat of undetected disease<\/em><\/a> (March 2026)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brussels, 7 July 2026 \u2013 The European Commission today published its Livestock Strategy and long-awaited Protein Plan, but the two send starkly different signals about Europe\u2019s [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":120554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,116],"tags":[176,325,889,1055,1056],"class_list":["post-120553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-nature-agriculture","tag-health","tag-pollution","tag-animal-welfare","tag-animal-farming","tag-diets"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/PRESS-RELEASE-FEATURED-IMAGES-22.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}