The Latest on Agriculture Protests and Who is Benefiting from the CAP?

"Food for profit, 357 billion reasons why they do not want you watching this movie"

Where are the angry farmers that throughout Europe blocked highways and entire cities by putting themselves through with their tractors? The short answer is that they haven't gone anywhere: they continue to express their dissent for the environmental measures they consider extreme and for the bureaucracy that entangles them.

Last weekend, for example, they challenged the streets of Madrid. Here we have different numbers: according to the organisers, 1000 people, but the Spanish government speaks of 450 people and 78 vehicles. Regardless of the number of people, the feeling of discontent is still very strong. They argue that it will make their activity non-competitive, pushing the market to buy extra communitarian products imported at low cost, which often bypass the regulations imposed by the European Union. In Poland, they recently obstructed a highway connecting Warsaw to Berlin, on which 17,000 trucks travel per day. The same group of Polish farmers had already blocked the border with Slovakia to protest against the arrival of the Ukrainian Grain, which they believe is a product that creates unfair competition, as it does not have to comply with community production rules but arrives on our markets with a preferential lane, thus distorting competition. Beyond who is right and who is wrong and how they protest, the fact that there are demonstrations all over Europe of this same category cannot but lead us to a reflection, to understand if the right direction of an environmental transition is compatible with the activity of an entire category. We also know, of course, that farmers do not protest only with their tractors, but by making the voice of the lobbyists who defend their intentions in Europe heard loudly. Or do we need to understand if we are talking about an anachronistic defence of markets that instead must open up to competition and perhaps even to globalisation?

The Common Agricultural Policy is described by the European Commission as a partnership between society and agriculture that ensures a stable supply of food, safeguards farmers' income, protects the environment and keeps rural areas vibrant. Its goals and projects are, however, heavily criticised both by the farmers, as we have already seen in the past months, and by the environmentalists. The just released documentary “Food for Profit” by Giulia Innocenzi and Pablo D'Ambrosi describes who are the actors involved in this game, which is mainly played in Brussels.

There are lobbyists, the meat industry and politicians of all levels, who try to get the most benefits out of the 400 billion euros that Europe, over 7 years, has chosen to allocate to the CAP. When we talk about the money allocated for the CAP we are talking about a significant slice of the taxes that each of us pays to our state and that are proportionally allocated to the common European coffers. The main objective of these 400 billion should be to support farmers and their income, but as the documentary tells very well, most of this money ends up in the hands of large industrial groups and intensive farms that can hardly be associated with far-sighted operations from an environmental point of view. The documentary not only employs infiltrated employees in German, Spanish, Italian and Polish farms, who have recorded everything with hidden cameras, but also lobbyists who show us what kind of dialogues take place with the representatives of the European Union. The greenwashing practices are perpetuated literally on our shoulders through our tax money. Solutions? The answer could not be as easy. The lobbying practice, more than common in Brussels, is partially supported by the lack of democratic practice enacted by the Union when it comes to allocation of budget and the non-impartiality of our MPES that prefer taking the side of big corporations more than their voters and taxpayers.

References

Innocenzi, G (Director). (2024). Food for Profit. Pueblo Unido

Ceran, M. (2024, May 19th). Che fine hanno fatto gli agricoltori in protesta? E come vengono spesi i solid che versiamo per la Politica Agricola Comune? The Essential.