The environmental effects of protein crops : implications for policy

Summary This presentation reports on a study conducted for the European Parliament to assess the potential environmental effects of an increase in the cultivation of protein crops in the EU and to formulate a set of policy measures that could be applied under the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to gain environmental benefits from increased cultivation of protein crops by EU farmers. It was conducted in early 2013 during an intense phase of the political debate about the future of the CAP. The study played a role in the development of the CAP reform package now being finalised. Compared with other major agricultural regions of the world, Europe is characterised by a lower share of legumes in cropping systems. This is because land is preferentially allocated to cereals in most of Europe’s cropping regions because cereals grow particularly well in Europe generally. The demand for plant protein which current cropping cannot fully meet comes from a livestock sector scaled to meet the EU’s high demand for meat. Our assessment concludes that increasing the production of protein crops would be an important contribution to the sustainable development of European agricultural and food systems. The direct farm and regional level environmental benefits combined with the indirect benefits arising from the better balance of EU agriculture and trade justify public intervention. We recommend that policy makers focus on the public benefits of increased legume cropping in the context of a wider re-balancing of European agricultural and food systems. This requires an integrated approach to policy development, which sees legumes expansion as a component of a wider effort to develop a more sustainable agriculture and food system. The reform of the common agricultural policy that is now taking shape includes two measures specific to protein crops: the consideration of nitrogen-fixing crops as part of the Ecological Focus Areas and limited provision for national coupled support for protein crops. In addition, protein crops are the subject of the first focus group advising the EU European Innovation Partnership on agriculture and food. Parallel to these policy measures, there are indications that the financial return to the use of legumes in farming systems is reaching parity with that of the dominant legume-free cropping systems. The immediate impact of these policy measures will depend on details which are marginal to the main reform debate. The proposals are modest and any ‘watering-down’ of them in the final decisions could seriously compromise their impact on legume cropping.