8 MARCH
2022
Farm lobby uses Russia-Ukraine war as opportunity
to attack the European Green Deal
While
Russia is bombing major cities across Ukraine, forcing over a 1.5 million
people to leave their homes, and creating an unimaginable amount of human
suffering, the European farm lobby has wasted no time to exploit this tragedy
for their own economic gain.
As this
humanitarian catastrophe unfolds, the focus of all should be on relieving
suffering rather than seeking to overturn overnight a well worked policy agenda
designed to protect farmers, citizens, and the environment. Human tragedy must
not be exploited for personal gain.
But, in the
past few days, the all-powerful French farm union FNSEA, followed by its
European umbrella organisation COPA-COGECA, have launched an assault of their
own on the EU Farm to Fork Strategy specifically, and on environmental policy
in general. Spearheaded by French Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie, a
strong supporter of the farm lobby, he has taken immediate steps to attempt to
shove the EU off its path towards an ecological transition in farming.
Denormandie
has already pushed through a vote to suspend the already meagre condition of
the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that requires all farmers who benefit from
the subsidies to have 4% of ecological infrastructure such as trees, hedges,
and fallows on their fields. And he has no intention to stop there.
Everything
from pesticide and fertiliser reduction targets to the upcoming EU Nature
Restoration law, are now under fire because of “food security”.
But there
is a much more sinister agenda at play.
If
Denormandie actually cared about cereal prices spiking and hurting food markets
and wanted to in fact do “everything to liberate the potential of agricultural
production starting from now”, he would be proposing to suspend all biofuel
subsidies.
This is the
one action, fully within EU governments control, that could release by fiat a
huge amount of cereals and edible oils – food – on the market. Many millions of
hectares are currently being used to feed European cars rather than people, and
this demand is entirely policy generated. The EU as such is a major exporter of
cereals and faces no short, nor long-term grain shortage.
So, it’s
not about food. It never was.
It’s about
exploiting a tragedy to preserve the current broken farming model that is destroying
the ecosystems on which it depends, wiping out biodiversity, harming citizens
health, and relentlessly reducing the number of farmers. It’s a deadly system
doing damage all around, but one that makes a lot of money for a handful of big
companies and large farmers – the ones who control the farm lobby which keeps
politicians on a short leash.
If European
decision makers follow farm lobby demands, they will actually put European food
security at risk. There is a scientific consensus that the biggest threat to
food security in coming years is due to climate change and ecological
breakdown. Not addressing these problems with absolute urgency is the worst
thing Europe could do.
The farm
lobby is willing to wipe out the livelihoods, and ultimately, the lives of
European farmers, who are among the most exposed to the ravages of floods,
droughts, and emerging pests. Some of the farm lobby requests won’t just
destroy nature but are also both politically and morally wrong. Most notably is
the request to subsidise nitrogen fertilisers which, pollution aside, would
lead to a higher demand for gas, the one thing everyone knows we don’t need.
The
intensive farm lobby and the environmental movement have had many differences
over the years and that is not going to change overnight. We have a different
vision of the future. But, we urge decision-makers to act in the interest of
all people, not only those championing their own private interests. If the Farm
to Fork Strategy is to be reviewed in light of the war, then it is imperative
that those who know that a healthy, natural environment underpins the long-term
future of farming are also heard.
All things
considered; our food system must still be rethought. The disruption of supplies
from a region accounting for about 30% of wheat exports, is likely to result in
a spike in cereal prices. And while rich societies and middle classes can
easily weather such spikes, the same cannot be said for those with lower
incomes and our most vulnerable in society – both in Europe and beyond. There
is thus a case for the deployment of short-term safety net measures, as well as
for a more fundamental longer term set of investments.
On the
short term the EU should:
- Introduce systems of food vouchers, social kitchens, ramped up school canteens and social spending to buffer the most vulnerable within our society
- Ramp up global aid, including food and nutrition programs for vulnerable regions
- Suspend all support to bioenergy in order to rapidly bring back huge amounts of prime arable land into human food production
- Launch a crash program of food waste reduction. Some measures such as mandatory delivery of unsold fresh food to food banks can be deployed rapidly and put food directly on the tables that need it.
- Immediately modify procurement rules to reduce waste and shift servings away from excessive meat and dairy towards more plant-based ingredients. A significant amount of food is not “chosen by consumers” but bought by the state for canteens in schools, hospitals, barracks, prisons, civil service offices etc.
- Support farmers, especially in the livestock sector, to reduce animal numbers and thus reduce fee requirements and support the transition towards more self-sufficient husbandry.
On the
longer term the EU should:
- Press ahead with policies aiming the restoration of the ecological resilience of farmland: more biodiversity, less pesticides and fertilisers, less water use, more soil fertility
- Bring in comprehensive policies to reduce food waste and favour dietary shifts in favour of healthier and lower footprint diets with less meat and dairy and more vegetable proteins and fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Bring in a comprehensive food systems law to help act on the entire supply chain ensuring that citizens are offered products that are both healthy and resource sparing.
- Stop the use of food and good agricultural land for bioenergy and put in place policies to re-orient the use of biomaterials towards the recuperation of waste streams that do not compete with food production.
- Promote agricultural policies that reduce farmers dependence on all types of inputs, diversifies their income and increases their resilience.
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