French farmers furious at EU over green agriculture roll back

After four days of protesting, Florent Sebban was back on his farm. As the rain fell gently on the fields, he hoisted a sledgehammer overhead, before driving it down on a wooden stake. He needed to secure his apple trees before spring.

"I think what I enjoy the most about farming is the link we have with customers," he says.

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Sebban's farm is situated an hour outside of Paris and feeds 120 families in his community. Everything is organic. Not once, he says, has he used chemical fertilizers or pesticides on his hundreds of fruit, vegetable and herb plants.

"All over this field is clover," he explains. "It brings nitrogen to our soils…which is the most important thing for plants to grow.”

But while Sebban relies on nature to feed his plants, many farmers use a manufactured version of nitrogen which, along with livestock production, is a leading cause of water pollution in Europe. Pesticides are also a problem and have been linked to biodiversity loss, soil degradation and cancers.

"I don't know any farmer who likes to use pesticides. If they do so it's because they're not sufficiently helped," insists Sebbans. "So the anger is - 'I don't have sufficient income and you're telling me I'm polluting.' But we're not giving them the means to change.”

That anger drove thousands of farmers to streets across Europe in recent weeks who protested against what they say are costly, overly restrictive environmental regulations that give competitors an unfair advantage.

"The French are asking for more ecology, healthier products, products that are better for the environment, but they're not prepared to pay for it so they buy cheaper alternatives," said farmer Jean Lefevre during a protest in Paris earlier this month.

"What worries me most is the piling up of standards that is making the profession more and more complicated," added fellow farmer Olivier Grare.

The mass demonstrations - just months ahead of EU elections - caught the attention of lawmakers in Brussels. A plan to halve pesticide usage by 2030 was scrapped and the sector was not even mentioned in the latest round of emissions reduction recommendations.

"Our farmers deserve to be listened to," Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg. "I know they are worried about the future of agriculture and their future as farmers but they also know that agriculture needs to move to a more sustainable model of production so that their farms remain profitable in the years to come.”

Experts warn subsidies could lead to 'unintended consequences’

Some experts warn overly subsidizing the sector could lead to unintended consequences - and that instead, lawmakers should structure regulation around a goal rather than implementing broad restrictions.

"Make the goal the reduction in greenhouse gasses and allow farmers to do that in the most efficient way possible," said Joseph Glaube, Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. 

"Let them choose the technologies that can actually get them to that point, rather than to say 'You have to use 30 percent less fertilizer.'”

Some farmers fear using less pesticides will reduce their crop yields and drive up costs. Sebbans disagrees and is unhappy that green regulations are being rolled back. He says the benefit of organic farming goes far beyond food production.

"We're contributing to make the water cleaner, to make the air cleaner, to preserve ecosystems and biodiversity.”

‌And for that, he says, farmers must be fairly compensated.

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