Agrifood Brief: South-Eastern winds fan farmers’ flames

South-Eastern winds fan farmers’ flames

The EU member states approved on Friday morning (9 February) the European Commission’s proposal for a derogation on land set-aside requirements. The measure was part of a package to appease farmers’ protests, which however continue in Southern and Eastern Europe.
The measure approved

The derogation on the requirement to leave 4% of land out of production to have the Common Agricultural Policy support will be suspended for 2024, under conditions.

On 31 January, the European Commission proposed exempting from the requirements those farmers growing on 7% of their land intermediate or nitrogen-fixing crops (lentils, weights, etc.) without pesticides.

The member states amended the measure in three points: they decreased the proportion of land from 7% to 4%; deleted a 0.3 coefficient on land for catch (intermediate) crops; and obtained a fast track procedure for possible needed changes in the eco-schemes, the regime of aids supporting agricultural practices which are additional to the 4% requirement.

But protests are not stopping in Southern and Eastern Europe.

As usual, local issues are mixing with the European big picture. We collected news and voices from the hotspots of the protests.

Continuing with our series of interviews, we spoke to Ricard Huguet, who represents young farmers in Catalonia, Spain. Asked about the timing of the protests in Spain, he said that, while mass demonstrations in Europe have had a contagious effect and encouraged mass participation, rural areas have long been a hotbed of discontent.

Huguet’s concerns range from excessive bureaucracy to “hypocrisy” in decisions on sustainability and trade.

He said environmental requirements are necessary but “forcefully” imposed on farmers while other economic sectors – such as tourism – are left untouched. He also mentioned free trade agreements and the fact that European farmers “cannot compete” with others in certain third countries with lower labour and sustainability standards.

He warned that, if political parties do not tackle the feeling of abandonment in rural areas, others will eye the opportunity, and pointed to the far-right. “It’s happening in Spain and across Europe,” he added.

We also interviewed Louise Fresco, a Dutch food scientist and former president of the top global agrifood University of Wageningen. She told us that farmers’ discontent is the tip of a more general social malaise, as they represent the resentment of the many other parts of the society unable to keep up with the pace of EU and national regulations, in particular on environment.

Fresco warned that the Commission’s strategic dialogue may not be enough to solve farmers and food issues, and called for a new agriculture and food policy that is attentive to differences among farmers, EU countries and their competitiveness.

The Greens urged the EU executive to take action on agriculture, calling for a tax on windfall food profits. The Greens in the European Parliament have become the latest party to woo farmers ahead of June’s EU elections, sending a letter to the European Commission on Monday (5 February) outlining their vision and demands for agriculture.

The Greens focused on a fair income for farmers and urged actions to address the imbalances in the food chain, such as introducing a windfall tax on agrifood products or reinforcing the EU’s Unfair Trading Practices Directive.

Meanwhile, a report commissioned by the Committee of the Regions (CoR) confirmed the grip of Eurosceptic parties on rural areas.

The authors said that some EU policies have “inevitable disproportionate impacts on rural areas,” adding that this gives national authorities the opportunity to blame the EU.

The European Parliament adopted its position on gene-edited plants. MEPs voted on Wednesday (7 February) to set new rules for the highly controversial new genomic techniques (NGTs), which currently fall under the more restrictive framework for genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Lawmakers agreed to create two categories for NGT-based plants: those which should be treated like their conventional counterparts (NGT 1); and those which would still have to follow stricter rules (NGT 2). The European Parliament agreed to have mandatory labelling for both categories and to keep them all out of organic production.

The ball is now in the court of the EU Council which, hours after the vote in the European Parliament, tried and failed to seal a deal as member states remain divided over the patentability of NGTs.

MEPs also updated EU regulations for tuna fishing on Tuesday (6 February), harmonising rules within the EU and third-country fleets for tuna fishing. While the measures received unanimous support, some environmentalists raised concerns over poor distribution quotas for small-scale fishing.

The rules commit the EU to new fishing standards, strict catch declarations and catch monitoring for tropical tuna, such as Mediterranean albacore and North and South Atlantic albacore. The text also insists on reducing by-catches of sea turtles, in particular by respecting fishing closures where there is a risk of interactions with these species.

Sofia Mandilara and Krasen Nikolov contributed to this reporting

[Edited by Angelo Di Mambro/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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The Agrifood Brief is created by Angelo (@angelodimambro) & Maria (@msimonarboleas).