The Re-CAP: What is the CAP and why should we care about it?

The Burning Case

#VoteDownThisCap, a "machine for extinction", the "worst deal possible for the planet", the recent vote in the European Parliament on the Common Agricultural Policy has been called many things.
This pillar of the European Union (think €400 billion over 6 years) is not only significant financially speaking, it's also an essential tool to achieve our climate and sustainability ambitions. See, the agricultural sector is one of the worst contributor to climate breakdown and biodiversity loss in Europe. Meanwhile, farmers are struggling to make a living across the continent without turning to intensive farming.
So in a context of Green Deal and ecological crisis, the vote on the proposed new CAP was crucial. Unfortunately, the deal that was approved by MEPs was heavily criticised by Greens, NGOs, activists, scientists and some farmers alike and led to an unprecedented social media campaign to vote it down.
So to understand better what's at stake with this CAP, why the proposed policy was so terrible for people and the planet and what are the next steps to ensure agriculture is fully part of the solution to the ecological crisis, we rushed to talk to Harriet Bradley at BirdLife Europe and Adélaide Charlier, a youth climate activist and initiator of the #VoteDownThisCap campaign alongside Greta Thunberg.
In this episode we talk about what led to this deal being proposed, what does it include, how influential lobbies were but we also talk about hope, what could come next and why citizen power is needed more than ever!