European farmers angry at climate policies could help sway EU parliamentary elections
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
European Union holds parliamentary elections this weekend. Observers say right-wing parties are poised to make gains. One group pushing Europe in this direction are farmers. In the past year, farmers from Poland to Spain have staged dramatic protests against EU climate policies. They say the rules make it impossible for them to make a living. NPR's Rob Schmitz reports from rural Germany.
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: Last year, Anthony Lee received a letter from the agricultural ministry of the state of Lower Saxony, where he runs his family's farm. The letter informed him that a tree had fallen on his land, removing the cultivation potential of a few hundred square feet of sugar beet fields. His annual farming subsidy would, therefore, be reduced by around $10.
ANTHONY LEE: Every three days, satellites fly over our fields, and then every farmer has to download an app. And we get a push message and saying, on your field, such and such, there's something not right. Take a picture, and send us this picture. That's how crazy it's gone now.
SCHMITZ: Twenty-first-century farming in Europe means GPS-enabled tractors, climate-change-inspired rules and crop rotations monitored by cameras in space.
LEE: If the satellite picture shows the government that something is not correct with that what you tell them - so if you say we grow wheat and you grow corn, it will automatically send them a message there's something wrong.
SCHMITZ: Lee says it's beginning to feel like the state is slowly taking over his farm. He's not alone.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
SCHMITZ: So far this year, farmers in every part of Europe have staged more than 4,000 protests, a 300% increase over last year, according to global risk data firm Verisk. They're angry about new environmental regulations, the removal of subsidies and cheap agricultural imports that don't meet the demands placed on the food they produce. Several of these demonstrations have turned violent, like this protest in Brussels, the seat of government for the European Union.
(SOUNDBITE OF SIREN)
SCHMITZ: Farmers pelted police with beets and then sprayed liquid manure on them before police responded with tear gas and water cannons. Alan Matthews, retired professor of European agricultural policy at Trinity College in Dublin, says European farms are mostly small-scale operations, and for hundreds of years, farmers here have become masters of working the land. Matthews says far more is expected of the modern European farmer.
ALAN MATTHEWS: We're now also asking them to be, you know, part ecologist, part nature conservationist. They need to know, you know, how they're impacting on greenhouse gas emissions. So there's a whole range of additional obligations, requirements, if you like, that we're asking farmers to make.
SCHMITZ: Matthews says the farmer protest movement across Europe in the months leading up to the EU parliamentary election reminds him of the climate change demonstrations that led up to the last EU election five years ago.
MATTHEWS: We now have farmer protests instead of youth protests prior to the European elections, but I think that protests in themselves are likely to have a similar impact.
SCHMITZ: Matthews sees the changes in the draft of the five-year strategic agenda published by the European Council, the top decision-making body of the European Union made up of the EU's heads of state. The last five-year agenda outlined a transition to a greener, more sustainable Europe.
MATTHEWS: All of that language has disappeared from the current draft of the next strategic agenda.
SCHMITZ: This shift has alarmed many politicians concerned about the environment. Michael Bloss, a German member of the EU Parliament for the Green Party, says stalling climate change policies to placate protesting farmers is a step backwards for Europe.
MICHAEL BLOSS: Their whole sector hasn't been really regulated in terms of climate, so it cannot be climate policies that makes them angry. But, for sure, we are fighting together with them to get better prices. But here, this is something that it's not the Greens who are responsible for, but it's the big retailers who don't give them enough for their produce.
SCHMITZ: For German farmer Anthony Lee, low produce prices are a problem, and that's why he's turned to other sources of revenue.
LEE: So this is where we have the rooms - three rooms here. And we try to build it so you can see all the old woodwork and that.
SCHMITZ: He gives a tour of a small hotel he's built on his land to make up for lost revenue from the farm. But Lee says the bigger problem is the Green Party.
LEE: It's definitely agenda to get rid of small farming businesses. They tell us the opposite. The first farms that go bankrupt are small farms because they can't cope with the system.
SCHMITZ: Lee has taken to YouTube to air his grievances. His videos have more than 30 million views. He's also running for EU Parliament for the right-wing Free Voters Party. He's attracted media attention for blaming politicians for wanting to take farmers' land to build housing for refugees, something he's provided no evidence for. Lee shrugs off this criticism, saying he does not belong to the far right. He says he's simply a family farmer who wants the EU to return more decision-making powers to those who work the land and feed Europe.
Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Lower Saxony.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE BARR BROTHERS' "STATIC ORPHANS")
Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.