Politics Farm to Fork
Criticism of Farm to Fork strategy swells
The Farm to Fork strategy, one of the showpieces of the Green Deal, has been increasingly criticized. MEPs are outraged by the European Commission's withholding of a critical report of the JRC. And this week, 27 European industry associations in the agri sector released a statement calling on European policymakers not to turn a blind eye to the negative effects of the strategy.
The colorful company of farmers' organization Copa-Cogeca, but also the associations of grain traders (Coceral), biodiesel and ethanol (EBB and ePure), land owners (ELO), slaughterhouses (IBC), mechanization sector (Cema) have issued a joint statement brought under the title: Farm to Fork – It's time to listen to what te data says! (it's time to listen to what the data is telling).
Agricultural production is falling
They point to the studies by the USDA, HFFA Research, Joint Research Center (JRC), Kiel University and Wageningen University and Research (WUR) into the Farm to Fork and biodiversity strategy. The studies all follow a different methodology and take different perspectives, but they come to the same conclusion. Agricultural production is falling and in some areas and for some products itself quite drastically.
According to the signatories, the data clearly shows that the measures have an effect on trade, farmers' incomes and ultimately on consumer prices. Adjusting the food chain under these conditions makes it even more difficult and introducing a tax on consumption, as proposed by the European Parliament, could make it socially unjust.
Well thought out choices
According to the organisations, the Common Agricultural Policy is one of the EU's greatest achievements. It is therefore incomprehensible, in their view, that further development is being hindered and the results achieved are being ignored, at a time when trading partners are eager to fill the gaps that the EU is dropping. The EU risks becoming dependent on foreign countries for food security. The signatories therefore call for an examination of the implications of the proposals as a whole. There is an urgent need for concrete proposals and a thorough discussion about the choices that are made, based on better data.
Commission publishes critical report during recess
Meanwhile, news website Euractiv announced that the critical report from the JRC, the European Commission's science office, on the Farm to Fork strategy was ready for publication in January. The European Commission said it would wait months to make it public until August, in the middle of the summer recess.
Several MPs and other stakeholders call this a 'sneaky tactic' by the Commission to try to keep 'the catastrophic consequences for agriculture' out of the public eye as much as possible. The Commission told Euractiv that there is no hidden agenda but that "publication has been postponed in an effort to address some deficiencies identified in January".
Jurphaas Lugtenburg
© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.