There is a nascent tsunami of food shortages, a wave whose devastating power is only just beginning to emerge. In addition to exactions of war, and the drama experienced by civilian populations, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left a gaping hole in the world’s food supply.
This is the light in which the European agricultural strategy for 2030, called Farm to Fork, should now be viewed. It stems from the wish to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. It consists, among other things, of increasing the share of organic farming to 25%, reducing soya imports to zero, halving the use of pesticides and veterinary antibiotics, reducing fertiliser applications by 20% and reducing the area cultivated on the continent by 10%.
In the opinion of the Copa-Cogeca, the major European agricultural union, of Paolo de Castro, the Vice-President for the committee on agriculture and rural development of the European Parliament, just like many economists, the European Commission has set input reduction targets that have been ‘pulled out of the hat’, without studying either the consequences for production or the means and tools to achieve them. It has taken no account of the warnings.
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Even before the war, economists, farmers and geopolitical specialists were sounding the alarm about the effects of such a plan. It is an economic sacrifice on a continental scale for zero environmental effects, or even worse! Economic studies have shown that if this political vision were to be implemented as it stands, we would be facing a disaster throughout the food chain.
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Arnaud Rousseau, from the FNSEA, notes:
Many of us have been shouting and warning in a void. There is no such thing as the end of the food story. There are always crises, wars, bad harvests, and antagonisms between countries that hinder the food machine. To pretend that everything is taken for granted for us and for the rest of the world is to invite tragedy.
