The new European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski emphasizes that the new European Commission will focus on promoting organic farming. Furthermore, he believes that young farmers are not yet sufficiently supported to remain in farming and face the "difficult challenges of agriculture."
The Polish Commissioner recently gave a speech during an annual conference on the future and challenges of European agriculture. Wojciechowski wants to better support organic farming with an "offensive" plan and reduce intensive farming as well as the use of pesticides and fertilizers.
This fits within the EU's 'Farm to Fork' strategy, which will examine how organic production can help the agri-food sector become more sustainable. The new European Commission intends to encourage this with subsidies, rather than punish with fines. The renewed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will be utilized to promote best practices.
Promotion
According to Wojciechowski, there are over 12 million hectares used for organic production across 200,000 farms in the EU. However, production and consumption of organic food differ significantly between EU countries, with organic product consumption varying from 10 percent to 0.5 percent. He says organic farming remains difficult for many Europeans to access because prices are too high. He pointed out that consumption is the main obstacle to the development of organic farming in Europe.
The lack of access to affordable land for new farmers is seen as the biggest barrier for newcomers in agriculture: more than half of Europe’s farmland is managed by farmers over 55 years old, and nearly a third by those over 65 years old. In contrast, only 6 percent of the total farmland is owned by farmers younger than 35 years.
Wojciechowski also wants to reduce the often long distances traveled to import raw materials. The distance between farm and fork must be shortened, and self-sufficiency increased. He cited the controversial example of the 36 million tons of soybeans imported annually from America, which EU countries could also grow themselves.
With his proposals, the Polish EU Commissioner gave a preview of the new EU agricultural policy that must align with the Climate Neutral Green Deal of EU Vice-President Frans Timmermans. The EU aims to reduce air pollution by half within ten years and wants the Earth to stop warming within thirty years.
His proposals range from introducing taxes on aviation and shipping and making road transport more expensive, to planting two billion trees in the EU and installing one million charging stations for clean electric cars along roads.
Timmermans' proposals will have significant effects on the large Dutch food industry and agricultural production. The agricultural sector is an important part of the Dutch economy but is increasingly seen as the largest industrial polluter of soil and air due to its very large livestock population.
In a Dutch television program, (Dutch) EU Commissioner Timmermans said Sunday that the agricultural industry “will have to play a major role in Europe's sustainability.” The European Commission will not tell the Netherlands to halve its livestock numbers. The Netherlands must figure out how to further reduce CO2 emissions in agriculture together with farmers. “Intensive agriculture is no longer appropriate. At the same time, we need agriculture. We cannot do without the farmers,” said EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans.