This is a subscriber-only article
Climate change, trade wars and sustainability are all directly affecting farmers.
For us as farmers, the EU negotiates internationally on our behalf. At the Irish Farmers Journal’s Navigating Global Trade conference two weeks ago, European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan rightly referred to and took pride in the €19bn surplus in the EU’s food and drink trade with third countries. This huge surplus is earned on the basis of the reputation for high quality that EU food and drink exports enjoy.
At the recent meeting of the heads of government, it was not only Brexit that was discussed. The meeting also discussed trade and said the EU “should continue to push for an ambitious and balanced free-trade agenda, promoting EU values and standards and ensuring a level playing field”. As Europe tightens up on environmental rules on both farming practices and access to agri chemicals, I was fascinated to hear at the recent Teagasc sustainability conference how processors and supermarkets are increasingly zoning in on the source of off-farm produced feed.
The targets seem to be soya and palm oil produced in Brazil and east Asia, the inference being that this is being produced on land that has been illegally deforested. If European consumers, through their supermarkets and processors, want to prevent the use of these products in European food production, it seems only logical that farmers should be paid. However, progress is being made – a Mercosur deal involving agricultural imports from South America is still at the discussion stage and agriculture has been specifically excluded from the US/EU trade talks while the Japanese-EU free-trade deal has real potential.
The Teagasc conference on farm sustainability put economic sustainability at the top of the list, followed by social, environmental and a continuing capacity by farmers to innovate. Without economic sustainability, the rest becomes irrelevant.
SHARING OPTIONS: