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sector hadn’t been involved enough.
The commission has shifted efforts to
a “Strategic Dialogue” on agriculture
involving stakeholders from across the
food system, to “depolarise” the debate.
But the move sparked concern, with major
environmental NGOs protesting the
return to a ‘narrow focus’ on agricultural
policy, as opposed to Farm-to-Fork’s holistic
approach.
Moreover, critics are contesting the narrative
that pits farmers against environmental
legislation, blaming lobby groups
and the far-right for exploiting farmers’
genuine grievances. Morgan Ody, farmer
and general coordinator of the peasant
organisation La Via Campesina, insisted
that dropping environmental legislation
only met the demands of the largest,
richest farmers. “For most farmers,
the main issue is a fair livelihood”, she
said, arguing that the continued protest
proved her point. “After the environmental
stuff was dropped, Arnaud Rousseau
[the head of the Copa-Cogeca agriculture
lobby group] told us to go home. Farmers
did not go home” Ody told the EUobserver
on the side of a farmers’ protest in
Brussels.
The MEPs
in the AGRI
committee
never dare to
do anything
that upsets
farmer’s
lobbies."
MEP Michal Wiezik
MEP’s involved with the legislation
expressed similar sentiments. Sarah
Wiener, Green MEP and rapporteur for
the SUR, argued that farmers could have
benefited from the pesticide law. “With a
little good will, farmers could have been
motivated and helped to understand that
the SUR is necessary and can even support
them in their independence,” she
said. But resistance was driven by conservative
politicians and lobbyists opposing
change, according to Wiener: “The
pesticide lobby had a business model to
lose.”
Michal Wiezik, MEP for Renew Europe
and member of the environment committee,
also felt that resistance against
Farm-to-Fork did not originate from
most farmers themselves, and lambasted
the outsized influence of the large
agri-businesses on EU policy-making.
“The MEPs in the AGRI committee never
dare to do anything that upsets farmer’s
lobbies,” Wiezik lamented.
Reports by Corporate Observatory Europe
and investigative platform DeSmog
have highlighted the ties between the
agri-food industry and EU policymakers,
documenting the intense efforts of lobby
groups like Copa-Cogeca and CorpLife
to derail the SUR, and constant meetings
between various MEP’s on the AGRI
committee and industry representatives.
Consequently, many farmers end up acting
against their own interests, observed
Natalia Mamonova, a political sociologist
specialising in rural populism. “They
demand to be less burdened by environmental
regulations, but that results
in a further deterioration of the soil of
which they will themselves be the major
victims.” Being locked into an unsustainable
system of competition and intensification,
makes farmers susceptible to
the far-right, said Mamonova. “They feel
they’re a group that has been overlooked
for years, in favour of urban elites and
transnational corporations, so there’s
overlap in the narrative.”
In the end, Farm-to-Fork’s flaw might
have been that it still wasn’t holistic
enough. With many farmers pushed to
the brink by shrinking margins, lowering
prices, and increased competition compounded
by imports from Ukraine, the
crisis in agriculture exposed the strategy’s
lack of measures for economic support.
Though emphasising that environmental
protection would benefit farmers
in the long run, Wiener acknowledged
that Farm-to-Fork was light on economic
support. “There were too few proposals
to combat price pressure on the market
or the supermarkets’ monopoly on
trade,” she said.
Supporters of Farm-to-Fork have now
no choice but to put their hopes on the
strategic dialogues delivering a breakthrough.
But even if the commission
manages to get all the different stakeholders
on board without watering down
all its proposals, implementation will be
left to the new commission. With momentum
for climate policy waning and
the far-right gaining in the polls, it seems
unlikely that Farm-to-Fork’s transformative
potential will soon materialise. ◄
About
Piet Ruig
Piet Ruig is a Brussels-based journalist,
who previously worked for
Dutch public broadcaster VPRO.
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