16/10/2026
âŹ46 billion of the EUâs âŹ57 billion farm budget (CAP) supported animal products in 2013. đđž Thatâs over 80%. For food production alone, the share is 82%: 38% directly, 44% through animal feed. Once feed is counted, a kilo of beef carries âŹ1.42 in EU subsidies.
Animal products supply 35% of EU calories and 65% of protein, and they take 82% of the money. That gap is the point: public money makes one kind of food cheaper than it would otherwise be, then we call the other one expensive.
đšđSwitzerland does it too. The federal government puts CHF 35â38 million a year into promoting animal products: meat, dairy (cheese included) and eggs. Meat alone is about CHF 5 million. A study commissioned by the federal agriculture office found that this promotion tends to harm biodiversity, though the effect canât be quantified.
This isnât about blaming farmers đšđŒâđŸ. Itâs about asking who decided whatâs cheap.
Sources
- Kortleve, MogollĂłn, Harwatt & Behrens (2024), âOver 80% of the European Unionâs Common Agricultural Policy supports emissions-intensive animal productsâ, Nature Food 5, 288â292 (data from 2013): nature.com/articles/s43016-024-00949-4
- Kortleve, Harwatt & Behrens, âOver 80% of the EUâs farming subsidies support emissions-intensive animal productsâ, The Conversation, 3 April 2024: theconversation.com/over-80-of-the-eus-farming-subsidies-support-emissions-intensive-animal-products-new-study-226853
- AFP report on the study (beef subsidy per kilo): phys.org/news/2024-04-eu-farm-subsidies-bolster-high.html
BFH-HAFL/Ecoplan (2024), âEvaluation agrarpolitischer Massnahmen bezĂŒglich BiodiversitĂ€tswirkung: Absatzförderungâ, report for the Bundesamt fĂŒr Landwirtschaft: aramis.admin.ch/Default?DocumentID=71838
- Bundesamt fĂŒr Landwirtschaft, Agrarbericht 2025, table âAusgaben QualitĂ€ts- und Absatzförderungâ: agrarbericht.ch