A Europe of factory farms
"In the past, Europe had a diverse agriculture. Farmers had some of us pigs next to growing grains and vegetables and they produced for the locals. Luckily, most farmers don't keep pigs anymore, but look what we have instead. Only these mega-farms, like factories, producing a single product for the world market."

Meat production in Europe is no longer based on access to land. Import of soy as a cheap vegetable protein source has meant a major turn for factory farming and concentration of meat and dairy production in areas near the big harbours in the Netherlands, Denmark, Northern Germany, Spain, and France. The intensified meat production Europe is experiencing would not have been possible without this soy import. For example, an amount of 4.7 million tonnes of soy is needed to satisfy the average German's yearly meat consumption of 61.1 kilos. It would take ten million hectares or about one-third of the surface of Germany to produce the animal feed for this meat production, not to mention all the fossil fuel and water that would be needed as well.

Small farmers cannot compete with these huge meat factories. People in rural areas see their regions change from a nice countryside into a smelly industrial zone with increasing truck traffic for feed, manure and animals. The imbalance of importing all animal feed results in a massive surplus of manure which is polluting the soil, (ground-) water, and the air. This also changes the landscape in these meat-producing regions; the countryside turns into fields of maize, the crop that can handle most manure.

For too long, people have been misled to believe that farm subsidies are about protecting small and family farms. About 44% of the yearly budget of the EU is spent on agriculture subsidies. It has been calculated that 80% of the funds go to just 20% of EU farmers, while at the other end of the scale, 40% of farmers share just 8% of the funds. What is not known is that amongst the big receivers of agriculture subsidies you find, for example, the Queen of England (based on land-ownership), food and drink manufacturers like Heineken and Nestlé, the catering of KLM and British Airways, and the big meat companies such as Dänish Crown.
sources:
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4407792.stm
www.guardian.co.uk/country/article/0,,1443878,00.html www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=99333