{"id":69203,"date":"2024-02-15T08:29:21","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T06:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/analisis\/diari-de-les-idees\/idees-dactualitat-un-fantasma-recorre-europa-la-crisi-del-sector-agricola\/"},"modified":"2024-02-15T08:57:09","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T06:57:09","slug":"idees-dactualitat-un-fantasma-recorre-europa-la-crisi-del-sector-agricola","status":"publish","type":"newspaper","link":"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/en\/analisis\/diari-de-les-idees\/idees-dactualitat-un-fantasma-recorre-europa-la-crisi-del-sector-agricola\/","title":{"rendered":"Idees d’actualitat – A spectre is haunting Europe: the crisis in the agricultural sector"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In recent weeks, Europe has witnessed a wave of farmers’ protests that have spread across several countries, including Germany, France, Poland, the Netherlands, Romania, Italy and Spain. These mobilisations reflect the deep malaise of the European countryside and are the most obvious symptom of a crisis of significant dimensions. Rather than a war between farmers and environmentalists, as the narrative promoted by far-right and populist parties insinuates, these demonstrations are rather the result of the inconsistencies of green neoliberalism, which has left the European agricultural sector mired in a crisis resulting from increasing deregulation and the unequal distribution of funds, with large farms receiving a disproportionate share of subsidies (for example, between 2020 and 2023, companies linked to the Duke of Alba received at least 5.3 million euros in subsidies).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The continental dimension of the protests reveals the structural nature of the problems in the primary sector. European farmers and stockbreeders are suffering from a crisis of growth in an activity that expanded and prospered for decades thanks to modernisation and industrialisation, but which since the beginning of the 21st century has been locked into a productivist model that is no longer growing and is generating unrest among indebted and impoverished farmers. This is due to the inconsistencies of the EU’s agricultural policies. On the one hand, a large amount of aid is allocated to the sector, mainly the 41.4 billion of the Common Agricultural Policy<\/a> (CAP), without criteria of social justice -in 2020, the 0.5% of the largest farms received 16.6% of the funds, with individual aid of more than 100,000 euros- or climate justice, since the funds are distributed according to hectares, which encourages intensive and polluting agriculture. On the other hand, the regulation of prices paid to farmers has been lifted, and tariffs on food from outside the EU have been abolished, with the signing of free trade agreements, such as the agreement with Mercosur<\/a>, which has become one of the central themes of the protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hence, trade liberalisation and foreign competition have created a precarious situation for many farmers, with prices of agricultural products stagnating or even falling, while the margins of agri-food and distribution companies have increased considerably. At the same time, the CAP requires paperwork that those affected consider unbearable, both in terms of complexity and volume (it is estimated that farmers spend up to 20% of their working day on bureaucratic procedures), which in many cases requires the intervention of an administrator, with the extra cost that this entails. Farmers also see restrictions on the use of fertilisers and environmental policies as a loss of competitiveness, as most subsidies are linked to strict compliance with measures to ensure the ecological transition. This means that the import of agricultural products from non-EU countries where the same environmental restrictions do not apply means a deregulation of the market that European farmers cannot cope with, as prices often do not cover production costs. In addition, productivist agriculture and the market lead to overproduction of many foodstuffs and consequent lower prices, in a context where farmers have little control over the prices of the food they produce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, the transition to greener agriculture is hampered by a lack of financial support and incoherent policies that prioritise productivity over sustainability. The response of governments to these protests has been in most cases unsatisfactory, prioritising economic interests over environmental and social concerns. In France, for example, the government has given in to the demands of agricultural unions, even sacrificing organic farming in favour of productivist policies. With regard to the European Union, the first major step taken by the European Commission was to go back on its intention to reduce the use of pesticides, i.e. to return to the same industrialised and productivist agriculture that has led to the current crisis. Consequently, the withdrawal of the pesticide reduction target set by the Green Deal<\/a>, which had opened the way to a different kind of agriculture, means that, for the time being, there will be no different kind of agriculture in the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under pressure from her own political group, the European People’s Party (EPP), Ursula von der Leyen has been forced to make concessions on environmental policy for fear that radical right wing parties could benefit from the agricultural crisis in the run-up to the European Parliament elections in June. But whether the current balance of power is maintained with the maintenance of a coalition between the People’s Party (EPP), the Social Democrats (S&D) and the Liberals (Renew Europe), or there is a shift to a coalition of conservatives and radical right-wing parties at the head of the Commission (as Manfred Weber, chairman of the EPP parliamentary group, wishes), the new executive will have to face one undeniable fact: meeting EU climate targets is almost impossible without tackling the environmental pollution generated by agriculture. Indeed, the sector is responsible for 14% of greenhouse gas emissions and is the main source of methane gas release, the second factor responsible for climate change after carbon dioxide. It is estimated that to achieve the green transition targets set for 2040, agricultural emissions would have to be reduced by 30%. Failure to curb them would therefore shift the burden to other sectors, such as transport, industry and energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commission’s changes can therefore be understood as a reaction to the possibility that farmers’ discontent could fuel the far-right vote in the June elections. Farmers represent only 2 per cent of the EU population and 1.4 per cent of GDP, but they embody the relationship to that which is basic and primordial, and which is so much claimed by populist movements. Thus, it is not so much the rural vote that is of concern, but rather that the demands of the peasants are used to amplify simplistic messages. Thus, their complaints about the bureaucracy involved in applying for subsidies are easily misrepresented to foster Euroscepticism; the production of EU legislation has become a veritable regulatory labyrinth; and the voices calling for changes in the conditions of trade agreements with third countries are used to disseminate messages contrary to the fight against climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, the European elections will show whether the EU turns to the right due to the combined effects of the future incorporation of Eastern European countries, the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the setback of a globalisation damaged by the excesses of neoliberal policies and by the economic, financial, political, social and health crises that have been going on since 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Photography: Axel Hindemith\u00a0\/\u00a0Creative Commons<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent weeks, Europe has witnessed a wave of farmers’ protests that have spread across several countries, including Germany, France, Poland, the Netherlands, Romania, Italy and Spain. These mobilisations reflect the deep malaise of the European countryside and are the most obvious symptom of a crisis of significant dimensions. Rather than a war between farmers and environmentalists, as the narrative promoted by far-right and populist parties insinuates, these demonstrations are rather the result of the inconsistencies of green neoliberalism, which has left the European agricultural sector mired in a crisis resulting from increasing deregulation and the unequal distribution of funds,\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":69039,"template":"","category_newspaper":[584],"segment":[],"subject":[],"class_list":["post-69203","newspaper","type-newspaper","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category_newspaper-584"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIdees d'actualitat - A spectre is haunting Europe: the crisis in the agricultural sector – IDEES<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/en\/analisis\/diari-de-les-idees\/idees-dactualitat-un-fantasma-recorre-europa-la-crisi-del-sector-agricola\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Idees d'actualitat - A spectre is haunting Europe: the crisis in the agricultural sector – IDEES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In recent weeks, Europe has witnessed a wave of farmers’ protests that have spread across several countries, including Germany, France, Poland, the Netherlands, Romania, Italy and Spain. 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