European lawmakers have drawn criticism after voting to strip environmentally friendly farming mandates from their books.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, lawmakers from the European Union voted to weaken regulations in the Common Agricultural Policy, or CAP.
The CAP is a set of regulations that the EU uses to ensure that food is grown responsibly, making sure that it is available now and ensuring that it will continue to grow in the future.
If farmers meet those requirements, they can receive EU funding to subsidize and support their farms, ensuring they practice sustainable, environmentally friendly farming.
The new vote strips protections against erosion and removes many of the requirements surrounding Natura 2000 sites, specially protected biological areas in Europe that house some of the continent's most unique and vulnerable species.
The decision has drawn criticism from environmental activists, who say that removing these regulations will have long-term consequences for Europe and its farmers.
"The worst part of this vote is that it dismantles the already limited environmental requirements farmers must meet to receive CAP funding, without addressing the real causes of their struggles," said Laurence Modrego, senior sustainable agriculture and food policy officer at the WWF European Policy Office.
"It completely misses the point of why farmers have been protesting for the past two years, and instead will accelerate the loss of healthy farmland, weaken the protection of sensitive ecosystems, and reduce our resilience to climate shocks," Modrego continued.
"Any short-term gains for farmers' livelihoods will be marginal at best, and far overweighed in the near future."
As our planet warms and weather patterns become less predictable, sustainable farming practices won't just be good business; they'll be essential to ensuring that our food supply continues to provide what we need.
We're already seeing strain on the food supply in places like Afghanistan, while Estonia is grappling with issues around its potato crop. Problems like these demonstrate the need for responsible, environmentally friendly farming.
Currently, activists are still hard at work, aiming to restore the regulations that were in place to foster responsible farming practices.
On a broader level, we can help ensure the future of farming by reducing carbon pollution, adopting sustainable agricultural practices, and minimizing plastic pollution.