In a startling revelation, an analysis of official but opaque data from EU member states has uncovered that 17 billionaires were linked to a staggering €3.3 billion in EU farming handouts between 2018 and 2021. This shocking finding comes amidst the backdrop of thousands of small farms across Europe being forced to shut down during the same period, highlighting the glaring inequalities in the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Billionaires Benefit While Small Farms Struggle
The list of billionaire beneficiaries reads like a who’s who of European business elite, including former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, British vacuum cleaner tycoon Sir James Dyson, and Chinese investor Guangchang Guo, owner of Wolverhampton Wanderers football club. Other notable names include German meat magnate Clemens Tönnies, Danish rewilding enthusiast Anders Holch Povlsen, and Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, former CEO of toymaker Lego.
French organic farmer and former MEP Benoît Biteau didn’t mince words in his reaction to the findings, calling it “madness” that billionaires are raking in massive subsidies while “the vast majority of farmers are struggling to make a living.” The CAP, which accounts for one-third of the entire EU budget, has long been criticized for its perverse incentives that prioritize land ownership over actual need for support.
Opaque Data Obscures Ultimate Beneficiaries
Strict privacy rules, weak transparency requirements, and complex chains of company ownership have made it nearly impossible to scrutinize who ultimately benefits from these generous handouts. A 2021 study commissioned by the European Parliament’s budgetary control committee found it “currently de facto impossible” to identify the largest ultimate beneficiaries of EU funding with full confidence.
Researchers from the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) had to painstakingly link recipient data from each member state with a commercial database of companies, tracing ownership chains to identify “ultimate beneficiaries” who owned at least 25% at each step. Even then, the complex web of ownership and regional redistribution of funds made it challenging to follow the money trail.
Scientists Criticize “Perverse Incentives” in Farm Subsidies
The revelation of billionaire beneficiaries has reignited calls for reform of the CAP. Scientists estimate that a staggering 50-80% of EU farming subsidies go towards animal agriculture rather than foods that would be better for human health and the environment. Paul Behrens, a global change researcher at Leiden University, emphasized that “subsidies are the biggest economic lever for change” in rapidly transitioning to a healthier and more sustainable food system.
“The inequality in the CAP is extreme and this work highlights again just how much the richest land-owners continue to get richer from subsidies. Although transparency in the CAP has improved over time, the amount of detective work needed to uncover how the public’s tax money is spent is astonishing.”
– Paul Behrens, Leiden University
Beneficiaries Defend Subsidies, Call for Reform
Most of the billionaires named in the findings declined to comment. However, a spokesperson for James Dyson argued that the family’s £140 million investment in sustainably improving its farms “dwarfs any subsidy payments” and that its companies have “contributed many hundreds of millions of pounds in EU taxes and tariffs.”
Thomas Dosch, head of public affairs at German meat company Tönnies, called for a “reorientation” of European agricultural policy to compensate farmers who adopt environmentally friendly practices for associated income losses. “No subsidies should be paid for quantity of products or as area premiums per hectare,” he stated, suggesting that environmentally harmful behavior could be sanctioned with high costs instead – but acknowledged this could lead to “politically unacceptable” food price increases and shortages.
Urgent Need for CAP Reform
As the EU gears up for another round of CAP negotiations, pressure is mounting to overhaul a system that disproportionately benefits large landowners and industrial agriculture at the expense of small farmers, environmental sustainability, and public health. Key reform priorities advocated by scientists, environmentalists, and small farmer organizations include:
- Shifting subsidies away from animal agriculture and towards plant-based foods
- Tying payments to environmentally sustainable practices rather than land area
- Capping payments to large beneficiaries and redistributing funds to small and medium-sized farms
- Improving transparency and closing loopholes that obscure ultimate beneficiaries
- Aligning agricultural policy with climate, biodiversity, and public health goals
The shocking revelation of billionaires profiting from billions in EU farm subsidies while small farmers struggle to survive has cast a harsh light on the urgent need for CAP reform. As policymakers, farmers, scientists, and civil society engage in heated debates over the future of European agriculture, the stakes couldn’t be higher – for rural livelihoods, environmental sustainability, public health, and the credibility of the EU itself.
