In order to learn more about what this new reform to PAC, Real World Radio spoke with Stanka Becheva, food and agriculture campaigner of Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE). She explained how this process is taking place at the European level and also how FoEE, together with other European groups, are organizing farmers and citizens to bring their demands to the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).

Last year the European Commission made a proposal on how the EU policy should look like and now the European Parliament and the national governments are deciding on this proposals and suggesting changes.

The Lisbon Treaty, which has been in place since 2009, provided the EU with the necessary legal framework to tackle issues like globalization, climate change, security and energy more efficiently, according to official information of the bloc.

Since the Lisbon Treaty entered into effect, the European Parliament co-decides the PAC together with the Commission, which means that the MEPs, who were elected by people, will also decide on the new agriculture policy, so FoEE is talking with MEPs and encouraging citizens to “call their MEPs and ask them to take responsibility for this new policy which affects the food that we are eating and the environment we are living in”, said Stanka.

She also explained that one of the new elements proposed for the agriculture policy is the environmental dimension, called ’greening’, which consists in that 30% of direct payments or subsidies going to farmers should be linked to measures to protect the environment.

The Commission provided that in order to get these subsidies the farmers should comply with three conditions: crop diversification, which implies farmers should have three different crops planted in their lands; to protect grasslands; and thirdly, the introduction of ecological areas, which means farmers should have 7% of their lands destined to ecological areas. Even though as an environmental organization, FoEE sees this as a good step in the right direction, they consider there are still some weak points.

Stanka explained that one of the problems involved by the so called crop diversification put forward by the Commission is that it allows farmers to have monoculture plantations.

She also mentioned some of the repercussions that this new policy would have on third countries, especially developing countries. The promotion of the so-called ’competitveness’ of European agriculture “would create opportunities for the European food industry to export their products, which in some ways could be a problem because we, in this way, dump our products on third countries’ markets and destroy some of their produce and on the other side importing a lot of our raw materials: we take land (...) and in this way we destroy the environment in developing countries and deprive people in rural communities from land they have been using for many years”.

Friends of the Earth Europe, together with other 7 organizations (Arc 2020, the European Milk Board, the European coordination of La Via Campesina, IFOAM, Meine Landwirtschaft,
Groupe PAC 2013 and Slow Food) have decided to help citizens, farmers, young people to bring their demands to the European Parliament in Brussels, so that they are included in the new agriculture policy.

Stanka explained to RWR “We are organizing a Good Food March that will start on the 5th of September in Strasbourg, so people are invited to march to Brussels and bring their demands to European policy makers. A lot of events will be happening across Europe in many cities like Budapest (Hungary), Bucharest (Romania), Lisbon (Portugal), Paris (France), so everyone can get involved and ask their MEPs to decide and to vote on healthy food and healthy environment”.

“On the final day, on 19th September we will invite everyone for the final gathering here in Brussels where we will invite a lot of MEPs to come down to us and to talk with the people that they represent”.