The European countryside is burning. The most striking flames are the tractors collapsing France or Germany. But a big fire does not start without the preconditions for it being in place in the forest. And in the continent's primary sector there is a deep structural malaise that has not stopped growing in recent years. A restlessness now converted into rage brewed in the heat of recent – and not so recent – political decisions. In Spain the seeds of the conflict are also planted. And it will germinate. If in Germany the spark that lit the bonfire was the announcement of the withdrawal of the subsidy for agricultural diesel, there is no reason to think that something similar will not happen here as soon as the Government fulfills the promise along the same lines as the minister. of the ecological portfolio, Teresa Ribera, did at the Dubai climate summit.
In the background, perceived as the great demon of the primary sector, the controversial and divisive Nature Restoration law that the European Parliament approved in July by a narrow margin (336 votes in favor, 300 against, 13 abstentions), despite the previous unfavorable positioning of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment commissions. The text is seen by the primary sector as a real blow to their interests and viability.
There is an intellectual temptation to reverse the terms in which the protest has taken shape. As if it were an invention of the extreme right, to which the conventional right has joined by drag effect, which has managed to hypnotize the impressionable and simple people of the primary sector. But this is a version that can only be purchased by those who have been closest to the primary sector during their visits to the supermarket shelves.
The circuit is the opposite: from bottom to top. The European right has taken note of a real unrest and naturally tries to take advantage of it. The equation in political terms is stated –forgive the simplification– in these terms: the right is trying to rectify some environmental objectives in favor of the demands of the primary sector, while the left, for the moment, remains faithful to the utopian postulate of zero emissions by 2050, regardless of the price and costs that our food producers must bear.
These are the cigarette butts that caused the fire. But the forest needs certain conditions for it to ignite a wild fire. And what is structural is the full conviction among farmers, ranchers and fishermen that they have long been seen by administrations more as a predator than as the necessary partner to guarantee food sovereignty and security, territorial balance and landscape conservation. .
Europe, if we adopt the point of view of the primary sector, aspires to become an ecologically armored territory, transferring the environmental costs of producing food to any other place in the world. To achieve this, it is convenient to stone the farmers, ranchers and fishermen of the continent based on bureaucracy and impossible obligations. While the EU signs trade agreements with third countries in which these requirements do not exist.
The circle, in the eyes of the affected European producers, closes with a future in which the European citizen eats African vegetables and fruits, South American fish and meat from anywhere, all produced with minimal environmental requirements and traceability. In this anticipated future, in the EU agricultural, fishing and livestock farms have ceased to exist due to the abusive production conditions imposed by the institutions. The transversal protest that is sweeping Europe, and that will also take hold in Spain, is born from the conviction of its members that the primary sector has become a burden. And of course, at this point they defend themselves. And rightly so, we would add on our part.
As a corollary, the words of Pep Riera, the historic union leader of Catalan farmers, who received a well-deserved tribute this week in Mataró: “When Unió de Pagesos started, 8% of the active population was farmers, now we barely reach 1% ”. Think about this phrase every time a politician talks to you about guaranteeing food security. Because without farmers, without ranchers and without fishermen there is no security or protection that is worth it. Just talk to fuel arguments when a war or any international crisis makes food even more expensive.
