Protests by ‘tired’ European farmers focus on regulation

Farmers’ protests that have spread across the European Union in recent weeks have captured the attention of policymakers as producers grapple with increased environmental regulations and major shifts in consumer demand.

Farmers are “fed up, but I’m very happy that they are fed up,” Irene Tolleret, a member of the European Union Parliament, said at the USDA’s annual Agricultural Outlook Forum. For decades, farmers have lost negotiations on EU environmental policy, she said.

Tolleret, a winemaker from southwest France, co-founded the European Food Forum, a nonpartisan platform for MEPs to debate food and agricultural policy. She is a member of the parliamentary committee on regional development and a substitute member of the committee on agriculture and rural development.

The EU policy-making process needs to be revamped, Tolleret said, “with the human farmer at the center of what we do, because they are the ones who are going to ensure sustainability and achieve the goals.”

The European Farm to Fork strategy aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture involves 24 pieces of legislation. “Some of them are good and farmers like them, and others are not very well understood,” Tolleret said.

Facing protests, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently withdrew a legislative proposal to significantly reduce the use of pesticides on the continent. Von der Leyden has renounced the regulation on the sustainable use of pesticides proposed as part of the Green Deal that she announced in 2020.

Tolleret emphasized that the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, the European equivalent of the US farm bill, is the main way the EU is driving change in agricultural practices. A quarter of a farm’s direct payments under the CAP depend on farmers taking additional environmental or animal welfare measures that are not required by regulation.

She also called for the establishment of common global metrics to measure soil carbon and health so that progress between countries can be compared.

Tolleret said it was in the interest of the United States and the European Union to cooperate on food policy, just as they did to develop COVID-19 vaccines. “We must do the same for everything related to global health,” she said.

One of his US counterparts, Rep. Jim Costa, Democrat of California, used a virtual appearance at the event to call on the US and EU to work with the UK to agree a “common sense agricultural policy” that will meet increased needs. global demand for food sustainably.

“We obviously need to be sustainable, but we need to talk about how we’re sustainable in a way that takes into account climate change and best agricultural management practices,” said Costa, a senior member of the Agriculture Committee of bedroom.

He said protests by European farmers showed the regulations may not be “well thought out, despite good intentions”.

Ted McKinney, CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, who attended the session with Tolleret and Costa, said: Agri-Pulse transatlantic dialogue “whatever the distance that separates us, is essential”.

“The philosophical differences are almost alpha and omega, but I think we can get there,” he said.

McKinney, who served as USDA undersecretary of commerce during the Trump administration, said EU policymakers are learning “Perhaps including more farmers…in farm to fork policies could have reversed what we are seeing in terms of tractor blockages in Europe.”

Some 800 farmers are disappearing every day in the European Union, which lost 3 million between 2010 and 2020, and breeders are facing falling consumer demand, according to Andrea Porcella Čapkovičová, an analyst at the European Commission.

Small producers in the livestock and dairy sectors will continue to be under pressure, she told the Ag Outlook Forum. “There will definitely be even more farmers lost. I hope in the next 10 years there won’t be another 3 million,” she said.

In Europe, beef and pork consumption is declining and dairy products are expected to take a larger share of animal protein consumption over time, even though dairy production is also declining.

Dairy currently accounts for 34% of EU animal protein consumption, a share expected to rise to 37% by 2035, although milk production is actually expected to decline slightly over the same period, it said. -she declared. The big positive for dairy producers is the growth in cheese consumption, which offsets the decline in demand for other dairy products.

British lawmaker: British farmers wary of American trade

Achieving a trade deal with the UK may require overcoming the concerns of British farmers.

Barry Gardiner, a Labor MP since 1997, told the Ag Outlook Forum that British livestock farmers fear being left unprotected in trade negotiations.

“Our farmers are afraid of a trade negotiation with the United States, because we know that agriculture is important to you, and we also know that it is not important to our trade negotiators,” he said. -he declared to the forum audience.

It’s not just the EU: California’s Proposition 12 has an economic impact

Proposition 12 of the Animal Housing Act adds about $300 million a year to grocery costs in California, and the cost could be closer to $400 million, or about $10 per resident, said l UC-Davis economist Dan Sumner at the Ag Outlook Forum. The law regulates sow housing in the supply chain for all pork sold in the state.

“By the way, most Californians did not require crate-free pork before this proposal. They could have; if it is on the market, the industry would have supplied it, there is no doubt about it. We didn’t,” he said.

EverAg economist Steve Meyer said pork producers had to decide whether it was worth complying with Prop 12 requirements.

“When I did the numbers four years ago, I was telling our customers, ‘Don’t do this for less than $6 to $8 per pig for at least five years.’ I’d tell them $10 or $12 now, and don’t do it unless you get a contract for at least five years,” he said. “And if they don’t pay you that, then stay away from them.”

U.S. farmers likely in good health for 2024, but 2025 looms, economist says

A leading agricultural economist told Ag Outlook Forum attendees that U.S. farmers likely have enough cash on hand after several good years to survive falling commodity prices in 2024. Next year could be a different matter .

Farmers have experienced “exceptional levels” of farm income over the past two years, said Nate Kauffman, senior vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and its top expert on agricultural economics. “Many producers, despite this expected drop in agricultural income, are still in a very, very solid position. »

Nate Kauffman, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

As evidence of the relatively strong position farmers find themselves in, banks in the Kansas City Fed region reported last year that none of their agricultural borrowers were on a watch list, which is unusual, Kauffman said.

“If by chance we were to have another year, maybe not in 24 but in 25, where we see a further reduction in farm income and a similar percentage decline in working capital, we are now starting to enter the territory where we were in agriculture between 2016 and 2019, and we know those were not good years,” Kauffman said. Working capital has been in sharp decline for several years.

The Kansas City Fed region includes Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and parts of western Missouri and northern New Mexico.

Farmers who purchase large equipment and land will pay much higher interest rates, but many producers have paid cash for their land in recent years. Nationally, 51% of farmland purchases between 2021 and 2023 were made in cash, compared to 39% in loans, according to AcreValue.com, a website that tracks agricultural land transactions. The method used for the remaining 10% of transactions was not known. In Iowa during this period, 75% of transactions were done in cash. In California, 63% of purchases were made with cash.

“What people are doing is not taking on debt at all or taking on less debt to maintain that level of cash flow,” said Jackson Takach of Farmer Mac, a secondary agricultural credit marketplace.

Maryland farmer calls for common carbon standards

Carbon measurements are a sensitive issue in the United States, not just in Europe.

Trey Hill, owner of Harborview Farms near Rock Hall, Md., said at the event that new, commonly accepted standards are needed to replace all of the carbon measurement and verification methods currently used by programs. compensation and insert.

“I currently work with four different auditors in the regeneration space,” Hill said. “Everyone has a different set of standards, which is good, but it makes marketing very difficult.”

He added that the different tests also make it difficult for farmers to determine the health of their soils. “We need soil health standards,” Hill said. “It is very difficult to get an idea of ​​the health of my soil. I mean, in almost 15 years, we’ve done 10 different soil tests and they all say something different.

Technology can be a barrier to farmers participating in some carbon programs, said Alabama farmer Kyle Bridgeforth. Precision farming equipment or other technology is often necessary for farmers to participate, but can be prohibitively expensive for farmers, he said.

“If you’re someone who only farms on weekends or you own a small shareholder farm, it’s really difficult to purchase the subscriptions and the advanced technology to get what’s needed to participate in these programs,” Bridgeforth said.

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