 Hi there! In this video, let's talk about food, our most basic need. Access to food is a human right, so we all have the right to feed ourselves with dignity. But the food system is quite complicated, goes through multiple stages before reaching us. Have you ever wondered who is responsible for the food we eat, and how we are able to access healthy, sustainable and affordable food? To understand how food policy works in Europe, you need to know about the common agricultural policy, the CAP. The CAP has been an important implementation and has been funded by the EU budget since its launch in 1962. The policy is centred on three key actions. First, direct income support. Farmers receive direct payments to guarantee their income stability, as well as for actions usually renumerated by the markets, like taking care of the countryside. Secondly, market measures. These complement the direct income support for farmers and include market intervention, a provision of sector-specific support, rules on the marketing of agricultural products such as labeling and standards, and the managing of tariff quotas for international trade. And thirdly, rural development measures. Each member state receives a financial allocation to implement at least one national programme. Each EU country and region can decide which measures are best, based on their regional needs, under the condition that the chosen programme falls in line with EU standards. Ever since its creation, the objective of the CAP has been to maximise production, and this aim has not since been re-evaluated. This logic of maximising agricultural production and inevitable over-saturation of the market has led to an unfair distribution of funding combined with unsustainable practices. Here's how. First, the CAP subsidies are hectare-based payments, which are not dependent on the meeting of criteria such as ecologically-friendly, sustainable and healthy production, or standards for workers' rights and animal welfare. Large farming operations and non-farming landowners have benefitted from these sorts of subsidies, while small farmers are unable to compete. Small farmers can no longer make a decent living and have to end their commerce. This has led to a loss of jobs and a decline in economic activities in rural areas, and as a result, fewer people are living in the countryside. Meanwhile, industrialised farms take centre stage, bringing little economic value to local communities, and only employing small numbers of people. There is also a huge downside to productivity without sustainability. Farmers with less land have to produce more to make a profit. To save money, they resort to importing genetically-modified soy or pesticide-treated monocultures from the United States, a pattern that contributes to the land grabbing and destruction of forests and savannas of South America. In order to cut costs and to comply with EU rules, farmers are forced to buy seeds from a handful of powerful agrochemical corporations. Consequently, about 75% of plant genetic diversity has been lost in the past 100 years. Many farmers use chemical fertilisers and pesticides to ensure profitable harvests from these homogenous seeds. Which leads to a loss of food diversity and a reduction in water quality and soil fertility. Chasing productivity also means that surplus products that cannot be sold on the EU market are instead mainly exported to so-called developing countries. Through high subsidies, large industrial agroenterprises can then sell their goods within these countries at way below the market value. These practices destroy local farming and often ruin entire livelihoods for local people. Now that you know the theory behind the common agricultural policy, you can see that it needs quite a few improvements. So what would a better common agricultural policy look like? First, EU funds should be redistributed fairly and they should reward sustainable land use that is conducive to the public good. This will support smaller, more sustainable farms which provide quality jobs and have environmentally friendly outputs, which will then lead to creation of local, decentralised food systems, especially in rural areas. A better common agricultural policy will also ensure that the social and labour rights of farmers and farm workers throughout the food chain are respected. Price dumping at the farm level as well as unfair trading practices should be stopped. And finally, public funds should ensure that farmers can make a living throughout the transition to sustainable practices. In a nutshell, we need a policy that is coherent with the EU's environmental, climate and development policies and one that produces healthy food for all and helps rural communities to thrive. Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple as these reforms are being opposed by extremely powerful stakeholders. Large-scale factory farmers, chemical and export industries, retailers, discounters and supermarkets are all advocating for maintaining the status quo in order to protect their profits. So hey, it's up to us to hold our policymakers accountable and demand change.