Dialogue not enough to solve farmers and food issues, says Dutch food scientist

The farmers’ protests are the tip of a more general social malaise, Louise Fresco, a Dutch scientist and writer dealing with globally sustainable food, told Euractiv, warning against the ongoing “proliferation of rules” and a uniform approach to different growers across Europe. 

Fresco had few good words for the  ‘strategic dialogue’ launched by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen with NGOs and agrifood stakeholders on 25 January, which “has a major risk of ending up with a statement where the truth is about in the middle”.

The previously announced initiative sounded very timely given the ongoing farmers’ protests all across Europe, but Fresco, former president of the globally known Wageningen University, specialised in agricultural research, was critical about the simplistic approach to a complex issue.

“In this case, the truth is not the middling of all opinions” as “the truth is far more complex, and I think there’s a lack of leadership if you just ask for a dialogue without indicating where you want to go and what choices entail”.

The Strategic Dialogue, von der Leyen said, is meant to “depolarise” the debate on food. But this approach also presents risks, Fresco said.

According to the Dutch scientists, “depolarising is a very easy buzzword to allow yourself also to think in black and white and then reject the other side”. So, the dialogue might end up reinforcing diverging ideas instead of bringing them closer to each other. 

Complexity is the core of Fresco’s reasoning. “Things are not black and white, especially in agriculture, things are far more nuanced and if you miss those in European farming and in Europe in general it’s because you’re such a high plane flying over everything [that] you miss the reality of life”.

Tip of the iceberg

Farmers’ protests are “the tip of the iceberg”, of a condition in which “people do not feel represented or they do not feel valued in their work”, argued Fresco. 

On the one hand, farmers are not understood by the rest of society, the Dutch scientist stressed.

“We now have two generations of Europeans who are very far removed from farming” and while “the previous generation still had grandparents who were farmers, today food and everything that agriculture represents have become something obvious” and “cheap for the most of the urban population, and even negative as a source of environmental destruction.”

On the other hand, the former Wageningen University president argued, farmers represent the resentment of the many other parts of the society, unable to keep up with the pace of EU and national regulations, in particular on environment. 

“I’m a staunch European,” Fresco said, “but the speed, the lack of understanding, the proliferation of rules at national, regional and European levels is complex and does not take into account the differences” in the ecological environments and between farmers.

Because, there is nothing like “European agriculture”, according to Fresco. “You cannot compare an Italian olive farmer in Puglia with a pig farmer in Poland, with a wheat farmer in the north of France, these farmers are very, very different, it’s like comparing a supermarket chain with an aviation company” the scientist added.

Despite that, there is the need of a European agricultural policy, Fresco stated.

Mansholt Plan 2.0

The new agriculture and food policy should assume the characteristics of a Mansholt plan 2.0, Fresco said. 

Sicco Mansholt, the Commissioner for agriculture (1958-1972) and president of the European Commission (1972-73), is famous for his role in the modernisation of European agriculture.

In 1968, he sent a far-sighted note to the Council of ministers, listing all the limits of the Common Agricultural Policy of the time and indicating solutions in innovation and generational renewal.

The recipe was opposed by the agricultural community, but it inspired the development of the CAP in the following decades.

According to Fresco, the EU needs an agricultural, raw materials and food policy embracing many different dimensions of agriculture, that is required to produce “foods and new materials to replace products made from fossil-based plants with bio-based products made with real plants and support innovation”, Fresco said. 

The EU plan should take into account the role of farmers in the “management of landscape and environment, fixing CO2, and the difference among farmers, geographic differences and competitivity differences, as there are farmers that need subsidies and those that don’t, and support innovation”.

“I think you need first to be courageous enough to say these are the problems we face and the possible trade-offs, and this is the direction we must go. We must be responsible, but we must also again cater for agriculture as a key sector for the future”, Fresco concluded.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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