Rome, April 11 (Xinhua) -- In recent months, peasant groups in France, Germany, Italy, Poland and other European countries have launched a series of protests, demanding that the European Union and its own governments improve the market environment for agricultural products and provide more support for agricultural operators. Although the specific demands of farmers vary from country to country, most of the protests focus on the EU's Common Agricultural Policy and the European Green Deal.
On March 1, in Vienna, Austria, customers buy vegetables in a supermarket. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter He Canling
The anger of European farmers has exposed the failure of EU agricultural policy and triggered a series of social problems: the "rough" and "ungrounded" approach to green transition, increasing social division, and the far-right camp taking advantage of farmers' discontent to gain power......
Policy injustices sparked protests
The EU's Common Agricultural Policy, which aims to unify agricultural subsidies and balance agricultural competition among EU member states, seems to have given rise to new "inequality" in recent years. This policy has historically been based on economies of scale, with subsidies allocated mainly according to the size of the farm, making it difficult for small-scale farmers to receive full subsidies without expansion, resulting in higher production costs, lower incomes, and even the loss of markets for agricultural products, exacerbating the dissatisfaction of farmers.
Farmers deliver haystacks in Mantua, Lombardy, Italy, August 12, 2022. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Alberto Lingria)
In addition, the Common Agricultural Policy uniformly regulates the prices of agricultural products, regardless of the level of farmers' production costs, and the regulated prices are often not proportional to the changes in costs. Data shows that between 2005 and 2020, the number of farms in the EU fell by almost 40%, and about 5.3 million farmers were forced to abandon farming, making it difficult for small and medium-sized farmers to sustain.
Massimiliano Giansanti, president of the Italian Federation of Agriculture, said that the EU's Common Agricultural Policy "must be completely rewritten" because "it does not solve any real problems".
The original intention of the EU to issue agricultural subsidies was to increase production, but after the increase in production, the EU turned to emphasize the "green transformation" and introduced a series of agricultural environmental protection policies, including limiting the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, banning herbicides, demarcating a large number of protected areas to protect biodiversity, requiring more animal breeding activities to protect animal welfare, and raising taxes on agricultural diesel to reduce carbon emissions.
In order to meet the increasingly stringent environmental requirements, farmers need to invest more money in the purchase of environmentally friendly equipment and new technologies, which leads to further increase in production costs. At the same time, the distribution and distribution of agricultural subsidies in the EU is increasingly skewed towards large, technologically advanced enterprises. The data shows that 80% of agricultural subsidies go to 20% of agricultural entities, and it is often difficult for small and medium-sized farmers to obtain effective support from public funds.
Customers come to a supermarket to shop in Brussels, Belgium, November 30, 2023. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhao Dingzhe
The EU's free trade policies have also exacerbated competitive pressures on European farmers. Since the 80s of the 20th century, the EU has concluded free trade agreements with countries outside the region, so that EU farmers face competition from farmers from non-EU countries at the same time, and the pressure on small farmers is still great.
After the full-scale escalation of the Ukraine crisis in February 2022, the EU waived import quotas and tariffs on Ukraine, and resumed negotiations on a trade deal with the member countries of Mercosur, an economic integration organization in Latin America. These measures further provoked discontent among European peasants.
Critics say that if the EU-MERCOSUR agreement comes into force, European farmers will face more competition from cheaper imported food that is produced using pesticides banned by the EU or in conditions that do not comply with the EU's strict environmental regulations. The livestock sector is also hit by cheaper meat in the MERCOSUR countries.
The rights and interests of farmers have not been taken seriously
In recent years, European farmers have suffered from unfair policies and low incomes, and the number of people employed has decreased, causing peasant groups to lose their voices in the political arena and exacerbating their poverty. In Germany, the largest economy in the European Union, for example, farmers account for only about 1 percent of the population and have little political influence. In some EU countries, policies that are not in the interests of farmers can often be introduced smoothly.
People shop for cheese during International Green Week in Berlin, Germany, January 20, 2023. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Stefan Zeitz)
Yu Xiaohua, chair professor of agricultural economics in the development and transition countries of the University of Göttingen in Germany, told reporters that in Europe, due to the popularization of large agricultural machinery, agricultural productivity has increased significantly, and food prices have remained low for a long time. Urban consumers buy food from supermarkets on a daily basis and do not fully understand the importance of agriculture, and farmers in the EU feel "isolated and discriminated against".
Italian peasants demonstrated in March in the center of the capital, Rome, with banners such as "If there is no agriculture, there is no future", "Call on society to respect agriculture and farmers", and "Please do not destroy the most beautiful cause in the world", all of which reflected the dissatisfaction of the peasant group with the status quo of their social status.
EU countries have recently introduced laws to suspend or ease restrictions on farming. The European Commission is proposing to relax or even abolish some of the more stringent standards in the green agriculture policy that came into effect last year, and EU member states and the European Parliament are expected to consider the proposals soon with a view to approving them by the end of April.
Discontent is exploited
Christian Bragason, secretary general of the European Trade Union Confederation, pointed out in an article a few days ago that European populists are using the anger of farmers who are not valued by society to promote their own political goals, and if the EU fails to solve the growing problem of inequality, the discontent of farmers will become a "fertile ground" for far-right forces.
People brave the snow to travel near the European Union's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on January 17. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhao Dingzhe
According to a recent poll by the European Council on Foreign Relations, right-wing parties lead the way in polls in nine EU countries and are expected to win more seats in the European Parliament elections in June this year. Spain's far-right party, the Voices party, has won the support of millions of voters, in Austria, the far-right Austrian Liberal Party leads the polls, and in Italy, Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government has aggressively pursued tax exemptions for farmers to win support.
In recent years, the Dutch government has adopted a more aggressive policy to reduce nitrogen emissions, closing 2,000 to 3,000 farms through forced purchases, which angered the peasant community, leading to the rise of a new party, the "Peasant Citizen Movement", which became the biggest winner in last year's national provincial council elections, and won 16 of the 75 seats in the upper house of the Dutch parliament, which hastened the fall of the coalition government to a certain extent.
This is an election year in the European Union, and the European People's Party (EPP), the largest party in the European Parliament, is trying to cast itself as a protector of the interests of farmers in order to win votes in rural areas. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is seeking re-election as the group's candidate and has had to compromise on the EU's "Green New Deal" to quell farmers' anger. If there is no significant change in EU agricultural policy, and the unfairness complained of by farmers continues or even worsens, the shift to the "right" in European politics is likely to accelerate.