By Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Farmers protesting across Europe have taken aim at EU environmental rules, which they say are adding to a pile of burdens on the sector, from low consumer prices to cheap food imports.
At the same time, agriculture is one of the sectors worst-affected by climate change. Europe’s farmers are already suffering under increasing heat, drought and flooding – the same impacts some green policies are attempting to prevent.
WORSENING WEATHER
Worsening extreme weather has added to farmers’ woes in recent years.
EU olive oil production plunged to a record low in the 12 months ending June 2023 as drought hit Europe’s major producers. Spain’s core crops, among them wheat, barley and rice, are having their lowest production levels for over a decade.
The EU expects its overall cereal production to be 4.3% below the 5-year average in the current season, mostly because of bad weather.
Elsewhere last year, heavy rains delayed the harvest and left wheat crops soaked in areas of France, Germany and Poland. Extreme weather cut apple and pear yields in Italy and Greece, and unusually wet conditions fuelled fungal diseases that damage fruit quality.
Already this year, climate change is affecting the sector. Last month – the world’s hottest January on record – farmers in Italy warned unusually warm winter weather and drought were destroying crops.
ROLE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N. panel that assesses the latest global climate science, has highlighted worse crop yields for maize, rice, soybean and wheat as one of the ways climate change is already affecting Europe.
Climate change is making heatwaves hotter and more frequent – conditions that can impede plants’ growth and exacerbate crop-ravaging droughts.
Human-caused climate change played an “overwhelming” role in an extreme heatwave in Europe last July, which caused large-scale crop damage and livestock losses, the World Weather Attribution team of scientists found.
Such hot and dry conditions also fuel wildfires, like those that swept through Greece last summer, destroying farms and olive groves.
At the same time, a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, so global warming means that when it does rain, the downpour can be heavier. That exacerbates the risk of floods – as seen in countries including Italy, where a deluge last May plunged thousands of farms under water.
GETTING WORSE
Without rapid action to curb climate change, its impacts on Europe’s farmers will worsen.
The IPCC has said more than a third of southern Europe’s population will face water scarcity if global average temperatures rise to 2C above pre-industrial levels. The planet has already warmed by 1.2C from pre-industrial times.
Lack of water is already plaguing farmers in the drought-prone Mediterranean.
Italy, renowned for wines and pasta wheat, faced one of its most severe droughts in 2022. In Spain, which is responsible for a third of the EU’s production of fruit, the government has said more than a fifth of land is at high risk of becoming infertile.
EU RULES
Farmers at protests across Europe have criticised EU green rules, which they say burden them with costs and bureaucracy that producers outside of Europe don’t face.
In response to the protests, the EU has weakened some.
The EU scrapped, at the last minute, a goal to cut farming emissions from its 2040 climate roadmap last week. Brussels also withdrew an EU law to reduce pesticides and delayed a target for farmers to leave some land fallow to improve biodiversity.
Green campaigners criticised the moves, warning that weakening green policies now will hurt farmers in the long run if ecosystems deteriorate further and climate change worsens.
But some farmers say policies are imposed top-down with little understanding of the impact on the ground. Paella rice farmers in Spain say their yields have been slashed by a fungus, after the EU banned the pesticide used to prevent it.
FUTURE OF FARMING
How to involve farmers in the EU’s green agenda – without stoking more unrest – is a looming question for policymakers.
For now, Brussels is on the defensive. EU countries’ agriculture ministers meet later this month to discuss more ways to cut red tape for the sector.
But the EU says farming will still need to cut emissions far faster, to comply with climate goals.
Agriculture contributes more than 10% of the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Those emissions have hardly decreased for two decades.
Brussels is working on policy ideas to tackle this – among them, a carbon trading scheme where farmers would get paid to store CO2 in soils, EU officials said.
Much will depend on the EU’s next reform of its massive farming subsidy budget beyond 2027, and what support this offers to adapt to the changing climate and reduce emissions.
(Reporting by Kate Abnett, Editing by William Maclean)
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