{"id":1504238,"date":"2024-02-17T03:37:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-17T03:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenqueen.com.hk\/?p=71055"},"modified":"2024-02-17T03:37:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-17T03:37:00","slug":"big-ag-vs-climate-change-are-farmers-really-protesting-against-the-eus-green-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/02\/17\/big-ag-vs-climate-change-are-farmers-really-protesting-against-the-eus-green-reforms\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Ag vs Climate Change: Are Farmers Really Protesting Against the EU\u2019s Green Reforms?"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Rachel Sherrington<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Across France, Italy and Belgium last week thousands of farmers\u00a0descended on capital cities to express their deep discontent with the European food system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The scenes were dramatic. Parked tractors brought traffic to a standstill in Paris, and on Thursday burning piles of hay and debris sent up huge, dark plumes of smoke in Brussels. The protests show no sign of slowing down and are\u00a0expected<\/a>\u00a0this week across Italy, Slovenia and Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Farmers\u2019 demonstrations have been\u00a0portrayed<\/a>\u00a0as a revolt against net zero, by the media and far-right groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the message received by governments \u2013 and they are acting on it. So far, the farmers have won key concessions, with the EU decision on Tuesday to\u00a0drop<\/a>\u00a0its plans to cut pesticide use, hot on the heels of the same\u00a0move<\/a>\u00a0by France on Friday, despite numbers of\u00a0birds<\/a>\u00a0and pollinators\u00a0plummeting<\/a>\u00a0in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet the reality on the ground in Brussels last week was more mixed. While Europe\u2019s largest farming union,\u00a0Copa-Cogeca<\/a>,\u00a0paints<\/a>\u00a0environmental measures as an enemy to farmers\u2019 prosperity, an analysis by Carbon Brief has\u00a0found<\/a>\u00a0that a fifth of farmer concerns were not on green issues, relating instead to high production costs, food pricing and trade-related concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other\u00a0groups of farmers came out onto the streets of Brussels with a different message. They say the EU should see the protests as a sign to do more, not less, to protect the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are very clear that as farmers we want to take action to struggle against the climate crisis,\u201d said Morgan Ody, a farmer from Brittany who belongs to the European chapter of La Via Campesina (ECVC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ody travelled to Belgium with over a thousand farmers connected to Via Campesina \u2013 and other allied national smallholder farmer groups from Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Germany \u2013 to protest last Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Via Campesina and its smallholder allies also insist that ambitious action to address climate breakdown and biodiversity loss must go hand in hand with tackling other farmer concerns \u2013 such as low pay. Difficult working conditions, they say, are also at the root of the frustrations of many who showed up to demonstrate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The position of Via Campesina stands in contrast to those of other powerful groups, which also attended the protest in Brussels and others across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Copa-Cogeca, which enjoys\u00a0privileged<\/a>\u00a0access to many of the EU\u2019s key decision-makers, has taken an aggressive stance on EU sustainable farming policies proposed through the bloc\u2019s Farm to Fork. It has also undertaken lobbying to\u00a0derail<\/a>\u00a0key EU-wide measures such as a nature restoration law which was only\u00a0narrowly<\/a>\u00a0approved by EU lawmakers at the end of last year, full of loopholes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The group\u2019s political legitimacy has rested in part on a claim to represent 22 million farmers and their families across the EU, which a recent investigation from Lighthouse Reports\u00a0found<\/a>\u00a0to be exaggerated. Many smallholder farmers interviewed by Lighthouse Reports and others have said Copa-Cogeca does not represent them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Policy experts\u00a0say\u00a0<\/a>the farming system needs to become more sustainable to safeguard food production and address climate impacts. Intensive, industrial farming from larger operations currently drives much of the sector\u2019s emissions, as well as harming soils and causing a vertiginous fall in populations of bees, birds and butterflies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Copa-Cogeca\u2019s recent demands have included the rollback of an important environmental provision in the EU\u2019s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) \u2013 the subsidy scheme which supports European producers. The provision would require farmers to leave four percent of their land free for nature in order to protect and rebuild\u00a0biodiversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This week, the EU announced it would\u00a0postpone<\/a>\u00a0the incoming CAP biodiversity clause, in concession to protests across the bloc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Friday, the French government\u00a0pledged<\/a>\u00a0to halt a measure to halve pesticide use by 2030, following\u00a0sustained<\/a>\u00a0lobbying from industry-aligned union\u00a0FNSEA<\/a>\u00a0on the measure over the last several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tuesday\u2019s decision by the EU commission to\u00a0drop<\/a>\u00a0a bloc-wide measure aimed at slashing pesticide use was met with praise from a triumphant Copa-Cogeca, which, in a post on X (formerly Twitter)\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0the regulation a \u201ctop-down proposal\u201d that was \u201cpoorly designed,\u201d but with\u00a0dismay<\/a>\u00a0from environmentalists who said the move would hurt farmers in the longer term.<\/p>\n\n\nBig Agri vs EU Green Reform<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n