in the United Kingdom as in Spain, the State actively helps farmers to reconcile their practices with ecology

Four years after Brexit, the British government has just unveiled measures in favor of farmers, in order to encourage good practices. In Spain, the fight over water has found a solution thanks to major aid for reconversion. Our correspondents describe the situation on site.

The anger of farmers in Germany, who are taking increasingly violent actions against the government’s green policy, illustrates the difficulties in reconciling environmental policy and agricultural policy throughout Europe.

But in the United Kingdom, to replace the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (the CAP and its subsidy system), which is no longer in force since Brexit, the Minister of Agriculture announced measures to help farmers to opt for good practices. Meanwhile, in Spain, the fight for more virtuous agriculture is focused around the use of water.

Promote good practices and consume British food

The ministry in London explains that, unlike the European CAP, whose payments depended on the size of the farm, this new system will focus on the use of the farm. With this new system qualified as “revolutionary” by the government, farmers will be able to see their subsidies “inflated” if they adopt environmentally friendly practices. They will receive bonuses if they help protect biodiversity on their land or if they invest in new technologies. For example, a farmer who leaves space for lapwings, an endangered bird species, to nest can earn more than 800 euros per hectare. The ministry therefore places more emphasis on good practices rather than on the size of plots. The farmers, who held their annual show in Oxford this week, believe that this overhaul comes a little late, four years after Brexit and that it does not reflect the increase in operating costs.

The government also wants to encourage consumers to eat more British food. The executive wants to ban brands and retailers from placing a British flag on packaging, even if the product contains a small percentage of foreign ingredients. In addition to regulating the use of the Union Jack, the Minister of Agriculture, Steve Barclay, is proposing the creation of a new label. But where controlled designations generally underline the quality of a product, it will be the opposite here: the future label will designate foods which are subject to standards lower than British standards, often American, Australian or New Zealand imports. .

Representatives of the agricultural sector welcomed this project, the date of entry into force of which is not yet known. With these measures, London hopes to produce 60% of the food consumed in the country in the United Kingdom.

In Spain, the legalization of marsh-destroying wells in question

In Spain, conflicts between agriculture and the environment also exist, particularly around the use of water. The most emblematic example is that of the Doñana Natural Park, a gigantic wetland in the south of the country, populated in particular by six million migratory birds. The conflict revolved around illegal wells, which some farmers used to water their fruits, particularly their strawberries, and which threatened to dry up these marshes.

Of course, everything is not the fault of farmers, climate change has something to do with it, as well as urban construction. Tourist apartments near the site also draw on reserves. But the legalization by the Andalusia region of agricultural wells, hitherto prohibited, has sparked a protest movement by all the environmental and scientific organizations in the country.

In addition to a conflict between farmers and environmentalists, a political rivalry exists between the Andalusia region, led by the right, and the central government, controlled by the left. The tension between the two administrations is very strong. Legal threats, murderous little sentences in the press, recourse to Brussels, this was not going to get better before the municipal elections of May 2023. It is not forbidden to suspect that on the one hand, the agricultural vote was sought by the Andalusian right, while the left could display its firmness in the face of the irresponsible ecocides of the right.

An agreement reached to reduce irrigation

It was not expected, but in December 2022, the two administrations reached an agreement to reduce irrigation. The state and the Andalusia region have spent 1.4 billion euros between them to save wetlands. Teresa Ribera, the Socialist Minister for Ecological Transition, is delighted: “This is an unimaginable figure, which must be invested in the service of people and in ecosystems.” This sum will mainly be devoted to agriculture, because “38% of the inhabitants of this area carry out an activity linked to this sector. The region’s president, Juanma Moreno, of the right-wing Popular Party, is also happy to pay to save water, as it is a subsidy for reconversion. “Farmers will receive aid of 100 000 euros per hectare, spread over five years. In exchange, they will abandon the cultivation of their land and will have to renature or reforest the soil. With this agreement, everyone wins, and no one loses,” explains Juanma Moreno.

The other option, a little less supported, is to switch to non-irrigated or ecological crops: everything except strawberries, which consume too much water. Ecology and agriculture are therefore compatible in Spain, provided you pay.