New farm commissioner in EU

The outgoing EU agriculture commissioner reviews his five years in office which appear to be ones of problem free achievement: https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/common-agricultural-policy/cap-overview/highlights-2019-24_en?s=09

The new commissioner, Christophe Hansen, is from Luxembourg, often perceived to be amenable to French concerns.  Food has been added to his portfolio, but animal welfare goes to health.   His biography is here: https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/1af2336d-a010-4ac0-b8de-81a23772a5ac_en?filename=CV%20Hansen.pdf

In 100 days he has to produce a vision for agriculture and food, so good luck with that.

Agriculture needs to cut emissions

The EU’s chief climate scientist has warned that the bloc will miss its climate targets if it does not force the agricultural sector to pay for its greenhouse gas emissions. Ottmar Edenhofer, chair of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change, told the Financial Times that it would be “almost impossible” to achieve the European Commission’s proposed aim of cutting emissions by 90 per cent by 2040 without a levy on agricultural emissions.

 “[Over] the last 15 years, the emissions in the agriculture sector remained quite stable,” Edenhofer said, while other sectors had cut their climate impact. “The price signal is important because without the price signal, it is very unlikely that, basically, we can reduce emissions,” he added.

Farming makes up 12 per cent of the EU’s emissions, of which about two-thirds comes from meat and dairy production. But it is one of the few sectors in the EU to have so far avoided strict climate legislation, including sectoral emissions reduction targets, in part because of farmers’ ability to stage widespread and disruptive protests.

Earlier this year, tractor blockades and demonstrations by farmers in many European capitals catalysed a rethink in the EU about how it was approaching efforts to decarbonise farms. It prompted the commission to retract a proposed law on pesticides and delete recommended targets from a document outlining how the bloc would reach its 2040 goal.

But the issue of making either farmers or other parties in the food chain pay for emissions has risen up the agenda as Brussels starts to outline its priorities for the next five-year mandate starting later this year.

 Denmark has also been lobbying Brussels to introduce an EU-wide system after it announced the world’s first carbon tax on farm emissions in June. EU officials are weighing options including a levy on food processors that would also include incentives for farmers to use their land as a carbon sink.

But a report on the future of farming in the EU that stemmed from consultations between food and farming industry groups as well as environmental NGOs, published this month, said it was “premature” to come to a conclusion about pricing agricultural emissions.

Strategic dialogue report

The final report of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture is now available: https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/common-agricultural-policy/cap-overview/main-initiatives-strategic-dialogue-future-eu-agriculture_en#strategic-dialogue-report

'There is consensus among members of the Strategic Dialogue that economic, environmental and social sustainability in the agri-food sector can reinforce each other, especially when supported by coherent policy measures.'   One can but hope for the latter.

“Business as usual, be it economic, social or environmental, is not an option,” said the report.. “Bold and swift action at all levels is needed” to tackle the “multiple crises” affecting farmers, including increased impacts from extreme weather such as drought, from inflation and from low-cost global competitors.

Among other proposals of the report are schemes to encourage consumers to cut their meat intake, including through tax incentives and labelling, and to help farmers move away from livestock farming, including a controversial suggestion to introduce voluntary buyout schemes for farms in areas with high levels of intensive animal farming.

The most significant recommendation is a major overhaul of the EU’s CAP subsidy scheme, which was first launched in 1962 and consumes a third of the bloc’s multiannual budget. Instead of allocating direct support to farmers according to the amount of land they own and linking that to mandatory environmental standards, the report recommends that subsidies should go to “the active farmers who need it most” based on their “economic viability”.

The report proposes that farmers receive incentives within the CAP to green their practices, as well as from a “Just Transition Fund” that is outside the CAP budget and is dedicated to longer-term changes such as converting farms to “regenerative” or organic methods. There should also be a loan package of up to €3bn from the European Investment Bank that prioritises young farmers.

The continuing power of the farm lobby

Behind the scenes the agricultural lobby is a sprawling, complex machine with vast financial resources, deep political connections and a sophisticated network of legal and public relations experts, argues the Financial Times in a Big Read analysis. “The farm lobby has been one of the most successful lobbies in Europe in terms of relentlessly getting what they want over a very long time,” says Ariel Brunner, Europe director of non-governmental organisation BirdLife International.  Industry groups spend between €9.35mn and €11.54mn a year lobbying Brussels alone, according to a recent report by the Changing Markets Foundation, another NGO.

Food systems are responsible for between 21 and 37 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions depending on what is included, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Over half of those emissions come from animal faming alone. Yet agriculture remains one of the last sectors in developed countries still to face binding limits on its carbon emissions. It is one of the few industries not covered in the EU’s emissions trading system, although proposals are under discussion.

The regular meetings between Copa-Cogeca, the umbrella body for farming unions and co-operative bodies across the EU, and the bloc’s officials show that the reach of the agribusiness lobby has been “institutionalised”, says BirdLife’s Brunner. Patrick Pagani, acting secretary-general of Copa-Cogeca, counters that lobbying is normal practice and “transparent” because the body publishes videos of its presidents’ main points.

Farmers in Europe say they are being strangled with red tape at a time when many are struggling with rising input costs following the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, which inflated energy and fertiliser prices. The EU’s Green Deal climate law, drafted in 2019, set out proposals to cut pesticide use and improve food systems, as well as reduce emissions from industrial-scale farms.

In the EU, lobby groups are already staking out positions ahead of the next major revision of the Common Agricultural Policy, which will take effect in 2028. The present iteration has been criticised by farmers for its attempts to tie payments to better environmental performance and cuts to pesticide usage. Following widespread protests, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has pledged that the next CAP will be “targeted” and find “the right balance between incentives, investments and regulation”.

Who benefits?

Research suggests that big farms and landowners reap far greater benefits from subsidy packages than small-scale growers, even though the latter are often the public face of lobbying efforts.

That has led to some tensions within the sector.  It has been suggested that the agricultural lobby “hijacked” the spring protests and put the emphasis on deregulation, which served the interest of the biggest industrial farms and agribusinesses, when the main concern of ordinary farmers was insufficient incomes.

FNSEA, France’s largest farming lobby has been accused of having ‘ no interest in securing income for farmers” but “a huge interest” in driving pesticide usage, because FNSEA is headed by Arnaud Rousseau, chair of agro-industrial company Avril.  At the EU level, Marion Picot, secretary-general of CEJA, the bloc’s main body for young farmers, says its members often feel drowned out by more dominant voices in Copa-Cogeca. “We are trying to make sure that young farmers are visible in other farming groups.”

In farm policy, it often seems that benefits go to those already doing well.

Alan Matthews sets out his views on the future of EU agripolicy in the light of the European Parliament elections here: https://www.europenowjournal.org/2024/08/15/thinking-the-future-of-agrifood-policy-in-light-of-the-eu-parliament-elections/

National state aids on the up but hard to track

National aids to agriculture have increased, but they are difficult to track and more transparency is needed: http://capreform.eu/greater-transparency-needed-in-national-aids-to-agriculture/

Alan Matthews estimates that national state aids led to additional transfers of €9 billion to farmers.   He forecasts: 'It is likely that relying on Member States to provide national aids will continue to be a feature of future crises.'

He notes: 'This is an extremely murky area as, despite the obligations on Member States to report State aid and other aid to farmers, there is no central registry which keeps track of these amounts.'

New food security report

The EU has brought out a second report on the state of food security in the EU: https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/document/download/a91b3841-6021-489e-b877-7f0f5278c88c_en?filename=efscm-assessment-spring-2024_en.pdf

It highlights weather and cost concerns on supply side and high food prices on demand side.

Farmer protests and the EP elections

Alan Matthews writes here about farmer protests and the 2024 European Parliament elections: https://www.intereconomics.eu/contents/year/2024/number/2/article/farmer-protests-and-the-2024-european-parliament-elections.html

He states:'This article looks at the origins of this recent wave of farm protests and asks whether a crisis situation exists in European farming as the Commission has suggested. It examines the measures that have been adopted and proposed in response. These measures, while consistent with the previously existing trend to roll back elements of the Green Deal, are in themselves limited in scope.'

'While signalling a willingness to respond to farmers’ concerns, they are unlikely to significantly change their situation. More radical changes have been put on the table, and these elements will play a role in the European Parliament elections in June 2024.'

Look out for an article from him to appear soon online from Political Quarterly.

Ministers retreat in face of farmer protests

Ministers have urged the EU to increase funding for the €60bn-a-year Common Agricultural Policy subsidy scheme in a bid to quell protests as Belgian farmers blockaded roads and set fire to tyres in central Brussels.

The CAP, which consumes about a third of the EU’s joint budget and is the oldest of the bloc’s policies still in operation, is designed to provide a steady stream of income to farmers in order to ensure food production. But as farmers staged their latest protests on Monday over rising costs and environmental regulations, ministers gathering in Brussels to discuss emergency measures to placate farmers said more money was crucial.

Charlie McConalogue, Ireland’s agriculture minister, told the Financial Times that the CAP had “eroded” in real terms over the past years and “must be strengthened in terms of its funding”. “Food security and supporting food production [should be] put very much back at the centre of . . . European budgetary considerations,” he said, a call echoed by ministers from France, Poland and other eastern European countries, according to diplomats present at the talks.

The CAP accounts for €386.6bn of the bloc’s €1.21tn common budget, which runs from 2021 to 2027.  Is this really a good use of available funds? Some 80 per cent of the scheme’s money goes to just 20 per cent of farmers, it is claimed, although I think this is a lazy application of the Pareto rule.

The debate over its increase comes amid heated discussions over priorities for the EU’s joint budget, with governments reluctant to contribute more due to stretched national finances and a need to spend more on defence after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago.

Renationalisation?

Piet Adema, the Dutch agricultural minister, told the Financial Times that instead of boosting the CAP, member states should be allowed more flexibility in how the funds could be used, i.e., renationalise the policy but said consumers should also accept the need to pay more for their food.   But consumers are struggling with a cost of living crisis.

Adema said: “There should be more transparency in the whole food supply chain: where are the earnings made, where are the losses made and how can we influence that?   Indeed, but there are powerful forces that would oppose that, both input multinationals and large scale food processors.“The amount of money you pay for your food compared to 20 or 30 years ago relatively has gone down so when we as a society want our farmers to produce honest sustainable goods, we have to pay for them.”

Farmers have not only called for more funds but also a relaxation in environmental regulations and a reconsideration of trade deals that they say are allowing cheap food imports to undercut prices for EU producers.

Brussels mayhem

In Brussels on Monday, hundreds of tractors blockaded streets close to where ministers were meeting. Some drove at riot police and destroyed barbed wire barricades set up around the main buildings. Several protesters threw manure and brandished placards with slogans such as “leave a future for our children, don’t kill our parents”.

Police used water cannon to douse burning tyres. The demonstrations follow weeks of protests across EU countries including France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania and Spain. Farmers blocked a major motorway in Poland on Monday and threatened to continue their blockades for more than 20 days unless their demands were met. French President Emmanuel Macron missed a G7 meeting at the weekend as he spent 13 hours meeting farmers at the country’s annual Salon de l’Agriculture trade show. He called for “calm” after facing protests at the event. “We’re not going to be able to fix the farming crisis in a few hours,” he said.

Ministers in retreat

Ministers agreed that proposals put forward by the European Commission last week aimed at cutting red tape for farmers trying to access CAP funds were “a step in the right direction”, said David Clarinval, Belgium’s deputy prime minister told the Pink ‘Un, but “more ambitious measures” were needed.

The commission has already withdrawn a flagship proposal to cut pesticide use and deleted emissions reductions targets for agriculture from a document outlining options for future EU climate policy. Agriculture will be on the agenda of the EU leaders’ summit in March, one EU diplomat said. In a letter to the commission on Friday, Copa Cogeca, the main farming lobby group, said the bloc’s environmental agenda had resulted in “a regulatory tsunami, with too many rushed consultations, top-down targets lacking assessment, and proposals pushed through without feasibility studies”.

But Via Campesina, one of the groups behind Monday’s protest, which represents small food producers and agricultural workers, said: “Putting a stop to various measures aimed at protecting the environment is an easy solution that meets the needs of agribusiness players. Administrative simplification measures are necessary, but obviously insufficient to guarantee an income for our farms.”