For several weeks now, farmers have been rising up in several European countries, including France and Germany. In Germany, the removal of tax exemptions on agricultural fuel lit the fuse. In France, the protest gained widespread support after years of bans on products going beyond what European legislation requires. A few months ago, the Netherlands, and closer to home Flanders, saw violent clashes over nitrogen emission limits.
Here too, farmers are launching actions to voice their frustration and exhaustion. Discontent has been growing for months, and the collapse of market prices has finally pushed farmers to make their voices heard.
What is happening? This anger stems from an accumulation of factors:
Deterioration of profitability and income
There is enormous pressure on the profitability of farms in many agricultural sectors. On one hand, like all businesses, farmers have suffered from inflation in their production inputs (supplies, energy, animal feed, etc.) without necessarily being able to pass this on in their selling prices. On the other hand, for months many agricultural markets have seen very low prices. This affects numerous products (wheat, meat, etc.) as well as all farming models. For example, the organic sector has been in crisis for months, with prices sometimes at the level of so-called conventional production.
This complicated economic equation, with its scissor effect, can be seen here cyclically, but is perfectly observable over the long term: rising costs and falling selling prices. In a business, this is unforgiving: it erodes profitability, margins, financial reserves and income.
Agricultural policy and the standards imposed alongside it
This unfavourable economic climate is compounded by another, structural trend: an avalanche of hard-to-implement standards that discourage production (without much compensation) or add further constraints that also erode financial margins. As a reminder, farmers run their businesses by selling their produce. CAP financial aid is meant to help them invest and offset certain bans. The problem is that the CAP keeps imposing more constraints and access conditions on aid, while being ever less funded from one programming period to the next.
On top of this come all the European texts (nature restoration, the SUR regulation, carbon taxation) which set very ambitious targets, impose a great deal of additional bureaucracy, and very often fail to provide the means to achieve them.
Finally, there are free trade agreements that allow the import into our continent of food products made under different conditions than ours. These products are also subsidised in one way or another by their public authorities. While we open ourselves up to competition, we reduce support for our farmers and impose additional constraints (handicaps) on them. This is utterly incoherent and creates an intolerable distortion of competition.
The public perception of the profession
Society's view of the farming world has changed and now harbours a great deal of distrust. Often stemming from a misunderstanding of the profession and its practices, we are witnessing what could be called "agribashing". We also see the spread of false information in the media and even in official publications. Farmers appear to be blamed for many ills far beyond their control, which undermines morale in the sector.
Farmers want to be trusted and to see solutions to all the constraints imposed on them. And we at the MR want to give them the means to achieve sustainable farming.
First, we need to put back on the table what we collectively want: we must preserve our agricultural sovereignty, produce good quality food, in sufficient quantity and at an affordable price (social and economic aspects). This requires that our farmers can make a living from their work (economic aspects), and we want to move towards greater environmental intensity (environmental aspects). These are the three pillars of sustainable farming.
Then, we need to give ourselves the means to do it: it is possible to go to the Moon, provided you develop the Apollo programme. If you ban that and leave people with just a bicycle, it will never work. Without a complete shift in CAP resources and in the method used to "green" our continent, we will destroy our food sovereignty, import most of our food and, to top it all off, environmental issues will no longer even be addressed. That is a disgrace for a region that was once the world's leading agricultural power…
This is not about "supporting" farmers. They are neither fools nor children. They need to be equipped. Equipped against their counterparts in other countries who use substances banned here and have lower costs. If the EU opens up markets, it must be able to guarantee mirror clauses to maintain fair competition.
How? With an ambitious CAP that favours sustainable production in all sectors. It must be able to compensate for the constraints it itself imposes for environmental, animal welfare and public health reasons. The CAP is our collective contribution (our taxes) to improving our health and our environment, but there is no reason why farmers alone should bear the cost of it.
They need to be equipped to move towards greater environmental intensity by investing in agronomic and genomic innovations, precision techniques and farming practices. These goals cannot be achieved with limited resources or a magic wand. What is being called for is a new green revolution: the necessary means must therefore be provided. Absurd constraints weighing on the CAP, such as so-called "calendar farming": farming designed in an office without taking into account the state of the land, local conditions or the weather, must be scrapped.
Closer to home, there are all the challenges related to farm succession, the definition of who counts as a farmer entitled to access aid, and access to land to practise the profession. This last point is central and requires a series of concrete measures, such as legal tools (the Walloon Region's right of first refusal for allocating land to family farmers, the Walloon Agricultural Land Agency), clear rules on the use of land for purposes other than farming, and financial and tax mechanisms favourable to farm succession. We absolutely must make the profession attractive to young people if we want to keep family farming alive.
We eat three times a day, every one of us. You don't kill the people who feed you.
These are the points our ministers will champion during this European presidency. These are the points we uphold in our programme for Europe, the federal level and the Region.
To achieve major transformations, there are two solutions: freedom or regulation. Either we trust the engineers of living systems and give them the means, or we dictate their profession to them from the administration.
The MR has chosen its side.