{"id":17907,"date":"2024-05-15T14:39:54","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T12:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ruralis.no\/?p=17907"},"modified":"2024-05-16T14:10:18","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T12:10:18","slug":"neoliberal-limits-farmer-protests-elections-and-the-far-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ruralis.no\/en\/2024\/05\/15\/neoliberal-limits-farmer-protests-elections-and-the-far-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Neoliberal Limits \u2013 Farmer Protests, Elections and the Far Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following material is republished with the permission of ARC2020 and was originally published on ARC2020\u2019s website on April 30, 2024.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

What is happening in Europe now regarding the farmers\u2019 protests?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Protests are still ongoing, despite the farmers having already won some concessions from EU and national authorities. Farmer protests in January and February were largely peaceful. They blocked ports and major transport arteries in many European countries and, then, gathered at Luxembourg Square in front of the EU Parliament in Brussels to address their demands to EU politicians. The farmers called for an end to free trade agreements between the European Union and third countries, such as Mercosur. They also demanded that agricultural and environmental regulations be made more flexible and simplified. In response, Ursula von der Leyen promised to repeal the Sustainable Use Regulation, which aims to halve the use of pesticides on EU farms, and loosen green farming requirements under the Common Agricultural Policy.<\/p>\n

This may have calmed some farmers, but protests flared up again in March. This time the protesters showed more violence. Farmers threw beets, eggs, potatoes, sprayed manure at police and set hay on fire as hundreds of tractors again blocked streets near the European Union headquarters, where agriculture ministers were trying to ease a crisis that has led to the farm protests across the EU. Police used tear gas and water cannons to keep farmers at bay. Farmer protests continued in different counties as well. They also became louder and more expressive, which required police intervention.<\/p>\n

Why does this happen?<\/b><\/h2>\n

The problem is not just strict environmental regulations and free trade agreements. We witness the systemic crisis of neoliberal industrial agriculture. The EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) \u2013 with its modernising paradigm \u2013 aimed to \u201cmodernise\u201d farmers by turning them into market-oriented capitalist entrepreneurs focused on constant growth and expansion. Nature became just one of the resources in this capitalist accumulation and is often sacrificed to economic growth. Under constant pressure to increase yields and improve competitiveness, farmers became trapped in the so-called \u201cchemical dependency treadmill\u201d following ever-increasing recommendations from agrochemical corporations to use pesticides and chemical fertilizers.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the agricultural subsidy system is very unfair: 80% of EU agricultural support goes to a privileged 20% of large farmers.\u00a0Again, the very same logic: growth and expansion. Farmers are trapped in this process: they will either have to expand by increasing their dependence on banks, retailers, supermarket chains, or go out of business.\u00a0In the last decade alone, the number of full-time farmers in the EU has fallen by one third, representing 5 million jobs.\u00a0Many of the EU 8.7 million farmers and farm workers are currently close to or below the poverty line. Statistics show that European farmers earn around 40% less than non-farm workers.<\/p>\n

The crisis of European neoliberal agriculture is exacerbated by Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine. Before that, the COVID-19 and inflation have already increased the cost of farm inputs and labor, while farmers\u2019 earnings were down as squeezed consumers cut back. Now European farmers are finding it even more difficult to make ends meet as energy and fertilizer prices have risen sharply due to the war.\u00a0Besides that, the EU granted tariff-free access for agricultural imports from Ukraine, many of them exempt from the strict environmental standards the EU enforces on its own farmers. Imports rose from 7 billion euros in 2021 to 13 billion euros the following year, causing gluts and undercutting farmers, particularly in Poland.<\/p>\n

And finally, climate change. Extreme weather conditions\u2013 such as floods, wildfires and droughts \u2013 jeopardised harvests in many countries this and last year. This is part of the same problem \u2013 the crisis of neoliberal agriculture. Industrial farming methods contribute to biodiversity loss, soil erosion and greenhouse gas emissions. The EU agriculture accounts for 10% of EU greenhouse gas emissions. The main polluters are: the nitrous oxide in fertilizers, carbon dioxide from vehicles and methane from cattle.<\/p>\n

Of course, serious environmental measures must be taken at the EU level. However, the measures that were introduced follow the very same logic that caused the problem. They are oriented on growth and follow the principles of \u201cgreen neoliberalism\u201d \u2013 they aim to expand and invigorate markets through the sustainability movement, are based solely on economic calculations, and place the heaviest burden on farmers.<\/p>\n