On 3/24/22, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the urgent action plan to ensure food security-that is, the security of the food supply-following the conflict in Ukraine and the sanctions applied to Russia. (1)
1) RUSSIA, UKRAINE AND FOOD SECURITY IN EU
Sanctions imposed on Russia ‘will result in significant cumulative disruption to global agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture markets, in addition to the COVID-19 crisis and recent significant increases in input costs.’
1.1) Imports at risk
Prior to the conflict, Russia and Ukraine were significant contributors to the global grain market (wheat 31 percent, barley 32 percent, corn 17 percent), sunflower seeds and oil (20 percent and 50 percent, respectively), and nitrogen fertilizers. In addition to potassium carbonate, from Belarus.
EU imports of agricultural commodities, expressed in megatonnes (mln t, Mt) concerned:
– corn (9.2 Mt, 57 percent supplies), canola (2 Mt, 42 percent of EU imports by volume), sunflower cake (1.3 Mt, 47 percent of imports) and sunflower seed (0.1 Mt, 15 percent), wheat (1 Mt, 30 percent of imports) from Ukraine,
– rapeseed (0.2, Mt, 50% of EU supplies), sunflower cake (0.9 Mt, 34%) and sunflower seed (0.3 Mt, 35%), wheat (0.5 Mt, 11%) from Russia (Resolution 24.3.22, Recitals E,L,K).
1.2) CAP and food security
The objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) include, Parliament recalls, among others,
– The supply of food products with high nutritional value on the EU market,
– The reduction of the EU market’s dependence on food imports,
– The assurance that food products reach consumers at reasonable prices.
‘The COVID-19 pandemic and now the Russian invasion of Ukraine have made even more evident the need for the EU to strengthen its food security and reduce its dependence on imported inputs from a single supplier or too few suppliers from outside the EU‘ (Resolution 24.3.22, Recital Q).
1.3) Energy, poverty and the right to food
Russia-the leading supplier of fossil fuels to the EU-supplied 40.5 percent of the gas and 27 percent of the oil needed by the member states in 2021. (2) And ‘energy, input and food prices are all rising because of the conflict.’ As a result, more and more people-in addition to the 97 million currently at risk in the EU alone-will be at risk of poverty.
‘Therefore, social measures are needed to help producers and consumers cope with these effects; whereas food security involves not only the availability of food resources, but also includes, according to the FAO, the right to food and universal access to healthy nutrition‘ (Cons. S,T,U).
2) EU AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN
The boom in the prices of energy, fuels, nitrogen fertilizers, raw materials and agricultural products ‘has a significant impact on the agribusiness and aquaculture sectors, causing a sharp increase in production costs that jeopardizes the continuity of production and can lead to supply chain disruptions.’
2.1) End ofexport to Russia
EU agri-food exports to Russia, which is Europe’s sixth largest trading partner, are also undermined by ‘trade disruptions and imposed sanctions.’ This requires – according to the Strasbourg Assembly – ‘mitigating measures, including the creation of alternative markets for EU agricultural products‘ (Recital Z,AA).
2.2) Domestic market
The proper functioning of the internal market is invoked as an ‘essential condition for ensuring food safety‘. MEPs thus lament Hungary’s recent ban on grain exports, ‘in violation of its treaty obligations and the EU principle of solidarity‘ (Recital AH). And the worst is to come in the international competition among member states for gas, natural gas liquids and oil.
2.3) Market monitoring and business support
MEPs denounce ‘price speculation‘ and call on the Commission ‘to monitor the markets‘ that matter for food security. But it is impossible to curb these phenomena without changing the rules. And in these very hours the proposal to introduce acap (price cap) on gas prices – advocated by Italy and Spain – is being opposed by the custodians of the free market (Germany and the Netherlands).
The Strasbourg Assembly is therefore limited to asking the Commission to adopt ‘the necessary [and sufficient? ed] measures to protect EU agricultural, fisheries and aquaculture enterprises with support measures to create certainty and greater guarantees to maintain and, where necessary, increase food production by European farmers and fishermen‘.
3) FERTILIZERS
Nitrogen fertilizers have seen extraordinary price increases (up 142 percent in the last year) and account for an average of 20 percent of agricultural production costs along with energy.
3.1) Innovation and reforms
Innovation is essential to reduce dependence on synthetic fertilizers and the risks associated with their price volatility. There is a need to increase the use of fertilizers derived from organic nutrient sources such as sewage sludge and processed manure, charcoal biochar and frass. Without neglecting biostimulants and mycorrhizae.
To this end, the European Commission is invited to:
– Promote research, in Horizon Europe, on the interconnectedness of sustainability and greater circularity in agriculture and the move away from dependence on chemical fertilizers toward greener, renewable alternatives,
– address legislative and practical obstacles to implementing such solutions, to strengthen the use of organic fertilizers. With attention, in the writer’s opinion, to the need to simplify the management burden of animal by-products destined for further processing.
3.2) Other measures
The Europarliament also urges the Commission ‘to initiate the lifting of anti-dumping duties on fertilizers produced in third countries.’ E ‘Calls on the Commission to assess the possibility and feasibility of mobilizing additional financial support for the most affected sectors and to take urgent, targeted, and temporary measures to help farmers mitigate the effects of the sharp increase in fertilizer prices‘ (EP resolution 24.3.22, item 26).
The Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC) could then come under temporary derogation, in defiance of human health protection requirements reiterated in the reg. EU 2020/741. To raise the limits on the application of nitrogen from animal manure (ex. manure, RENURE), ‘as an alternative to chemical fertilizers, in line with the limits on fertilizers‘ (item 28).
4) CROPS AND ECOSYSTEMS
The occasion of the emergency is taken, by the Europarliament, to introduce derogations from the green transition targets introduced in the
Green Deal
and in
Farm to Fork
,
Biodiversity 2030
,
EU Soil strategy
.
As well as, in more fuzzy terms, in CAP 2023-2027 and
Next Generation EU
(formerly Recovery Plan).
4.1) Areas of ecological interest.
The agrochemical industry lobbies and the agricultural confederations serving them prevailed over the heartfelt call of the 408 scientists, for a policy oriented toward efficiency and resilience of food production under the aegis of agroecology. (3)
Pesticides and chemical fertilizers should also be used in areas of ecological concern, ‘if necessary‘, ‘temporarily‘. The European Parliament therefore calls on the Commission ‘to give Member States the flexibility‘ to frustrate more than a decade of efforts to conserve and restore ecosystems (para. 29).
4.2) Fallow land
The ‘exceptional circumstances‘ are cited because of the ‘urgent need to introduce temporary and reversible measures to increase EU production in the 2022 harvest season in order to contribute to EU food security.’ And ‘to propose additional appropriate measures, if necessary, for 2023.’
Fallow lands – 200,000 hectares in Italy-essential for restoring soil functions and maintaining populations of pollinators, pest controllers, and other ecosystem service providers-must therefore make way for crops ‘intended for human or animal consumption‘, with ‘priority to protein crops‘ (item 30).
5) CRISIS RESERVE, PAC ADVANCES
A crisis reserve – 479 million euros, including 48 million for Italy – will be urgently released to ‘help the agricultural sector meet current market challenges.’ New funds, additional to the resources already allocated for the CAP, will have to be released to replenish the crisis reserve.
Member states, according to agreements reached with the Commission in the meantime, will in turn be able to co-finance agricultural and food enterprises to the tune of 200 percent of the crisis reserve.
Advances to producers on direct payments and area- and animal-related rural development measures are to increase from 50 to 70 percent for income support and from 75 to 85 percent for rural development, according to the Strasbourg Assembly.
6) ANTITESIS
The European Parliament ‘stresses that European citizens, food producers and consumers are therefore ready to share the burden of the war in solidarity with the heroic Ukrainian people‘ (points 3.16).
Emmanuel Macron, in the current French presidency of the EU Council, announces an unprecedented food crisis that will last for at least a couple of years.
However, the European Union has allocated 500 million euros — a sum greater than the ‘crisis reserve‘ for our agriculture — in lethal weapons and war supplies to a third country in conflict. (4) Fueling the conflict underlying the European recession.
#NotInOurName, #MakeFoodNotWar!
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) European Parliament. Resolution 24.3.22 on the need for an urgent EU action plan to ensure food security inside and outside the European Union in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022/ 2593(RSP). https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2022-0099_IT.html
(2) Dario Dongo. Gas and electricity, a crisis foretold. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 20.3.22, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/gas-ed-energia-elettrica-una-crisi-annunciata
(3) Dario Dongo. From Farm to Fork to Farm to War, science’s call for a resilient food strategy. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 22.3.22, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/da-farm-to-fork-a-farm-to-war-l-appello-della-scienza-per-una-strategia-alimentare-resiliente
(4) The EU treaties do not allow the European budget to be tapped for military purposes. The obstacle was circumvented by Ursula von der Leyen by drawing on extra-budgetary resources allocated in the
European Peace Facility
, established in March 2021. Peace missiles?
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
