No Farmers No Food
Farmers across the world are up in arms, protesting against various unjust laws or restrictions with slogans such as ‘No Farmers No Food’, be it Spain, Poland, Germany, Greece or India. While the protests against the 3 Farm Bills had ultimately subsided with the Centre going back on the Bills over a year back, the same is being repeated anew in India. This time, there are a few additional demands of farmers apart from Minimum Support Prices (MSP), pension for senior citizen farmers for instance.
In Europe, tractors had been lined up outside Brandenburg gate in Germany’s Berlin. In Italy, farmers set fires at night. In Poland too, farmers took out a procession of tractors on city streets. In Brussels, headquarter of the European Union, eggs were hurled at the European Parliament and a statue of 19th century British industrialist was toppled.
France, where the protest began in December and later spread to other European countries, has witnessed the biggest protest in different forms. Farmers blocked highways around Paris with tractors and bales of straw and dumped crates of vegetables which some farmers claimed have been imported from neighbouring countries. Farmers also sprayed manure on buildings.
Six European trade union federations described the situation of farmers as unsustainable and potentially comprising the survival of producers in the EU. Farmers have chosen appropriate time for the agitation and hence their protest assumes major significance. The European Union (EU) Parliament elections are due just four months away, in June 2024. Various parties contesting the upcoming polls will have to take a position on the issues raised by the European farmers.
In Germany, protests erupted due to the phasing out tax rebates on diesel. In Belgium and the Netherlands it was planned to limit the livestock. But, the grievances include excessive regulations on environment protection leading to pesticides ban, too much interference of bureaucracy resulting in excessive red tapism and inadequate payments. In France particularly, the farmers are also agitated over unfair competition from cheaper imports.
With war in Ukraine due to the solidarity corridor Ukraine’s agri products are available in part of Europe, causing decrease in price.
One more aspect of price is that farmers are dissatisfied as the efforts by the governments and retailers to bring down food inflation make the farmers unable to cover the high cost of production and transportation. The cost of fertilisers and diesel have sharply increased. The farmers have also been reportedly targetting port areas to disrupt logistics infrastructure. That will impact port movement. They already have disrupted transport in some areas by blocking highways, particularly in France and Germany. Hence, the economic impact of the protest will be that the agri products will not be available and supply of other goods is also likely to be affected since the logistics and transportation will be disrupted. The impact will also be greater on agri input business like seeds, chemicals and fertilisers, pesticides etc. While different issues are highlighted by the farmers in their protest, at the core of the entire agitation is the environment related issues. The EU wants to be carbon neutral by 2050 and wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 per cent by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. All EU agricultural policies are framed to meet these targets. But it seems that each change in the EU’S common agricultural policy is affecting the farmers, particularly small ones.
Leveraging large scale protests, European farmers have definitely scored some goals. They have compelled the political parties to take a stand on their issues at the time of the EU Parliament polls. They have also challenged the EU’S position and reputation as a champion for environmental causes. So much so that even the EU’S Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski admitted that there was a need to reduce use of pesticides but not by forcing the farmers to do it, but by incentivising farmers to pursue greener practices, indicating the possibility of changes in the EU policies. He has probably set the tone for the coming elections.