The World Trade Organization (WTO) will hold its 13th Ministerial Conference on February 26th in Abu Dhabi. Few people connect the proceedings at this summit with the plight of poor farmers around the world, but in fact there is a direct and clear link between the two.
On that day, we, members of the European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC), an international organization representing smallholder farmers in 21 European countries, protested against the neoliberal policies in agriculture that the WTO had promoted for decades, and the farmers' organization poverty.
This tragic situation is underlined by ongoing protests by farmers who have taken to the streets, blocking highways and logistics platforms across Europe since January.
They are the people who produce European food on a small or medium scale, traditional or organic. They are united by a common reality: they are tired of working constantly without a decent income.
We have reached this point after decades of neoliberal agricultural policies and free trade agreements. Production costs have risen steadily in recent years, while prices paid to farmers have stagnated or even fallen.
In the face of this situation, farmers have pursued various economic strategies. Some are trying to increase production to compensate for falling prices. They bought more land, invested in machinery, took on large amounts of debt, and saw their workload increase significantly. Stress and loss of income are causing great frustration.
Other farmers are seeking better prices for their produce by turning to organic farming and shorter distribution channels. But for many, those markets collapsed after the coronavirus pandemic.
All the while, through mergers and speculation, large agricultural industrial groups have grown larger and larger, increasing pressure on farmers' prices and practices.
ECVC has actively participated in the mobilization of European farmers. Our members have also been hit hard by reduced incomes, stress associated with high levels of debt, and excessive workloads. We are clear that the European Union's embrace of the WTO's policy of agricultural market deregulation, supporting big agribusiness and destructive international competition, is the direct cause of our predicament. I understand.
Since the 1980s, various regulations that guaranteed fair prices for European farmers have been lifted. The EU has full faith in free trade agreements, which force all farmers around the world to compete with each other and produce at the lowest possible price at the expense of their own incomes and increasing debt. I encourage it.
However, in recent years, the EU has announced its intention to move towards more sustainable agricultural models, particularly the farm-to-fork strategy, which is the agricultural component of the Green Deal.
Farmers' organizations welcomed this ambition, but at the same time stressed that the sustainability of European agriculture cannot be improved without moving away from the logic of international competitiveness. Producing ecologically has huge benefits for health and the planet, but it also comes at a higher cost to farmers, so agricultural markets need to be protected to achieve the transition to agroecology. Unfortunately, they couldn't hear us.
European farmers were therefore faced with an impossible mission: to realize the transition to agroecology while producing at the lowest possible prices. As a result, differences between agricultural organizations were clearly highlighted.
On the one hand, the major farmers and agribusiness organizations associated with Copa Cogeca want to maintain their neoliberal orientation and are calling for the reversal of environmental measures set out in the EU's Green Deal.
Meanwhile, the ECVC and other organizations believe that the environmental and climate crises are real and serious, and that it is critical that we give ourselves the tools to fight them to ensure food sovereignty for decades to come. claims. For us, it is not environmental regulation that must be challenged, but neoliberal frameworks.
In particular, we condemn the free trade agreements that the EU has concluded with various countries and regions. One is the agreement negotiated with the Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay). The final document was drafted in 2019 but has not been signed or ratified by either side.
If it takes effect, it would be a disaster for European livestock farmers, as it would lead to increased imports of meat and other products from Mercosur countries. This could cause prices to fall and put further economic pressure on Europe's already struggling livestock farmers.
Additionally, the agreement could result in the importation of products that do not meet the same stringent food safety and environmental sustainability standards adopted by the EU.
We do not oppose international trade in agricultural products, but we insist that trade be based on food sovereignty. This means allowing the import and export of agricultural products, provided they do not harm local food production or the livelihoods of small-scale food producers.
Instead of protecting farmers and supporting the transition to agroecology, the EU has backed away from large farmers and agribusiness organizations by withdrawing a key clause in the Green Deal to halve the use of pesticides by 2030. I chose to comply with the request.
Some European countries have also decided to respond to the crisis by scrapping environmental measures while maintaining neoliberal policies. For example, France suspended Ecophyte's pesticide reduction scheme, and Germany scrapped a tax reduction scheme for agricultural vehicles and watered down legislation to eliminate subsidies for off-road diesel fuel.
Eliminating environmental regulations is a very risky choice because it will not permanently solve the fundamental problem of declining farmers' incomes. Therefore, there is no doubt that the farmers' protests will intensify in the coming years.
All of this is happening at a time when the far right is on the rise around the world. Rather than solving problems by ensuring better income distribution, the far right scapegoats ethnic minorities (immigrants, women, LGBTQ, etc.) and intensifies violent repression of popular movements.
In the Netherlands, farmers' anger was exploited by the right-wing Peasants' Citizen Movement Party (BBB), which used anti-establishment and anti-ecology rhetoric to win more votes. As a result, the BBB achieved significant victories in state and national elections and increased its parliamentary seat from one to seven seats.
With the EU's inconsistent response to the farmers' protests, there is a real risk that this trend will continue in June's European Parliament elections.
Farmers' unions within the ECVC argue that the real solution for Europe's farmers is policies that work with countries in the south to regulate markets and promote food sovereignty. At a time when capital incomes are exploding, we farmers must support unions and the climate movement to ensure fair pay for all workers and a consistent response to the global climate emergency. It demands policy.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.
