Christian challenges for the new Common Agricultural Policy

The Our Daily Bread network is a group of 12 European Christian organisations that promote sustainable food systems. The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice in Dublin is one of the members. The network published a position paper on the EU’s new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on Wednesday 22 October 2026 saying that the next Common Agricultural Policy presents a crucial
opportunity to deliver justice for farmers, the people of Europe and indeed the living world. The paper is addressed they say “to all Christians and people of good will who believe in the EU’s ability to be an instrument of justice, sustainability and shared prosperity.”

The Our Daily Bread document outlines the environmental context that CAP must respond to, not least the impact of soaring temperatures as global warming impacts food production across Europe and around the globe. In their introductory article entitled ‘A summer of truth’ they note that the summer of 2026 confirmed what scientists have long warned: Europe’s food system is not built for the climate it now faces. Successive heatwaves and a sustained rainfall deficit from Portugal to Finland pushed much of the continent into drought, with the World Weather Attribution network describing 2026 as a “compound crisis” of heat and water scarcity.

The damage to agriculture has been severe and widespread: France’s cereal harvest is down an estimated 7.7 million tonnes, with Germany, Poland, Spain and Hungary all recording significant losses ; Irish potato growers expect yields to drop by up to 40% in
some areas ; livestock farmers from Austria to Italy have been forced to feed animals from winter reserves or sell cattle early for lack of grass and water ; extreme heatwaves led to the deaths of 2.5 million chicken in France.

This is not a one-off shock but a preview. It calls us, they say, to urgently invest in an agriculture that is resilient by design rather than repeatedly treating the symptoms: one that needs less water and fewer synthetic inputs, that restores rather than depletes biodiversity and soil health, that provides animals with living conditions adapted to rising temperatures, and that gives farmers the support they need to make this transition without bearing its costs alone.

Food security, understood over the long term, is not simply a question of output — it depends on resilient ecosystems, diversified farms, and reduced dependency on vulnerable external inputs, from fertiliser to fuel, as this year’s disrupted supply chains have
shown.

Drawing on scripture and the teachings of Pope Francis they offer a Christian rationale for their vision of CAP, and particular policy proposals for how the new agricultural policy can support a just European food system.

Pope Francis’s critique frames two divergent approaches to nature they explain: one of extraction that seeks to maximize yield and profit, and one of reciprocity that recognizes the land as a gift to be respected. Post‑World War II Europe embraced the former through technological intensification and market logic, the Green Revolution, which delivered high output but depleted the ecological foundations that made that output possible. As resources have been exhausted and industrial agri‑food systems strain the land and animals, a counter‑movement of sustainable initiatives is emerging that works with natural limits and treats the farm as a productive relationship rather than a resource to be plundered.

Christian scriptural texts argue that such relationships are covenantal: mutual, faithful commitments that enable flourishing over the long term. Farmers who steward soil and livestock enact this covenant, while purely commercial contracts can break it and undermine both people and nature. The Our Daily Bread network therefore calls on the EU to redesign agricultural policy and contracts, particularly the Common Agricultural Policy, so they restore and protect farmers’ covenantal ties to the land, making the EU an instrument of justice for farmers, ecosystems, and European citizens.

The One Daily Bread network argues that the CAP’s move towards fairer distribution of support, through the so-called ‘capping’ and ‘degressivity’ mechanisms must not only be maintained but strengthened, so that public money reaches those who truly steward the land, not merely those who hold the most of it.

Furthermore they say that 35% of the overall CAP budget must be ‘ring fenced’ and fully EU-funded for ambitious environmental, climate, and animal welfare measures, so that Member States’ new responsibility comes with a guarantee that the covenant with the land and its creatures is genuinely funded and not merely permitted.

The Our Daily Bread Network is coordinated by the Jesuit European Social Centre in Brussels. You can read more and download their position paper on the EU’s new Common Agricultural Policy by clicking here »