European Farms Demand an End to Free Trade Agreements, Fair Prices for Farmers
by Agroecology School Intern Lily LaFaye
For weeks now, farmers across European countries, including Belgium, France, Germany, and Italy, have been taking to the streets, using their tractors to create blockades to and from major cities, and demanding “a dignified income for all farmers” and a “Break with Free Trade.”
As trade and conservation initiatives advance in the European Union, European agricultural workers and landowners are facing increased production costs and a rise in inflation in the midst of a government push towards more sustainable growing practices. A trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur countries currently pending ratification is an attempt to create positive foreign relations between the two regions, but the deal neglects farmers at home by prioritizing the production and importation of cheaper international goods. Many products that would be imported from Mercosur are not grown to the same standard that European farmers are required to practice, allowing for lower production costs, and eventual market price, for imported goods, which in turn threatens the viability of domestic community scale farms.
Farmers say the cost of production under the proposed bill is more than what they receive for product sales, and would be detrimental to their livelihoods. Without also supporting local markets and food sovereignty, a legislative push for sustainability is not truly sustainable, and instead paves the way for additional consolidation as all small farms can no longer survive economically and are bought up by large corporations.
As quoted in TIME magazine, “On the one hand, we are being asked to farm more sustainably, which is fair enough because we know that the climate crisis exists because it's affecting us,” she says. “But at the same time, we are asked to keep producing as cheap as possible, which puts us in an impossible situation., says Morgan Ody, a French farmer with European Coordination of La Via Campesina (ECVC).
Farmers across the US and in Vermont grapple with similar issues, with high production costs and a lack of parity for the goods they produce. Questions of land access and management, as well as consumer access, continue to be discussed at community levels and with policy makers as more and more farm land becomes at risk of development. As we look toward necessary environmental solutions for climate change, we must also consider a Just Transition, which supports farmers transitioning to more ecological land management practices and people everywhere in transitioning from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy. Any law claiming to increase ‘sustainability’ in agriculture must also address the wellbeing of those who work the land, and the local markets that support them. Humans are not separate from nature, and any true sustainable solution will support the food sovereignty and food security of a region as well as the environment, not jeopardize the food system through extreme consolidation.
Through our membership with international agriculturist movement La Via Campesina, and our overarching vision of food sovereignty, Rural Vermont stands in solidarity with European farmers and farmworkers as they demand dignified livelihoods, as we continue to work side by side with farms engaged in interconnected struggles here in Vermont.
Resources and further reading:
https://viacampesina.org/en/eu-mercosur-trade-deal-a-threat-to-peasant-rights-and-nature/
https://nefoodsystemplanners.org
https://time.com/6632372/farmer-protests-europe-france-germany-brussels/