People are being invited to raise their voices to ensure that policies support farmers, the environment and climate-friendly agriculture that is tied to local economies over global food chains.

Friends of the Earth said it would be at the Ta’ Qali Farmers’ Market on Saturday from 8am to 1pm to show its support.

Visitors will be asked what sort of food and agricultural systems they believed needed supporting. There will also be healthy snacks made from local and seasonal produce.

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This was part of an initiative taking place all over Europe with citizens standing up for good food and good farming.

“It’s scandalous that in the midst of this environmental and economic crisis, big industrial farms, extensive food distributors and corporations continue to receive the lion’s share of EU agricultural funds.

“Together with organisations around Europe, we call on EU ministers to help build a better food and farming system in solidarity with people and regions across Europe instead of big business,” FoE chairman Martin Galea De Giovanni said.

The mobilisation comes as the European Union negotiates a reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. The current CAP takes up around a third of the EU’s budget, with huge influence on how food is produced and distributed.

On November 19, the Good Food Good Farming (GFGF) movement will target EU agriculture ministers meeting in Brussels for the EU Council summit that will touch upon the new CAP.

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For GFGF organisers it is fundamental that EU leaders act now and deliver on the objectives of a new CAP that responds to the challenges facing Europe and the world.

Although recent years have seen big strides being made towards more sustainable agriculture in Europe, big industrial farms still posed a huge threat to sustainable agriculture. The EU lost a third of its small farms between 2003 and 2013, and 3 per cent of farms owned 52 per cent of all farmland.

Large-scale, intensive agriculture contributed to climate change, degraded and depleted water reserves and soil quality and caused mass biodiversity loss.

National governments and the EU Commission had to ensure that the decisions taken in the ECJ and the EP in defence of a more sustainable farming model were upheld, FoE said.