In October 2024, Fairebel, the pioneering Belgian Fair Milk brand, celebrates a decade and a half of striving for local and fair agriculture. Founded in 2009 by a group of farmers, Fairebel has become more than just a milk brand: it symbolises resilience and solidarity within the Belgian agricultural sector. Today, Fairebel continues to grow, representing over 500 producers who have come together to offer quality products while, at the same time, guaranteeing that each and every one of them is fairly remunerated. This ensures future prospects for the young farmers who are members of the cooperative.

For the next few years, Christophe Hansen from Luxembourg is set to hold the reins of agricultural policy in the EU. The EPP politician (European People’s Party), who was already an MEP, is an environmental and geoscientist and comes from a farming family.

In contrast to his predecessors, Christophe Hansen (see biography here) is taking office at a time when the EU’s political institutions are meanwhile aware, in theory at least, of the problems facing both farmers and the agri-food sector. A few months ago, a paper was developed in the EU in the context of the Strategic Dialogue with the following clear aims, among others:

• Reduce unfair trading conditions
• Ensure data about production costs and prices are taken into consideration when negotiating contracts
• Implement robust crisis management
• Provide support for future generations of farmers.

The assignment which EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen set out for Hansen in the so-called mission letter also stipulates that he should base his work on the recommendations of the Strategic Dialogue. One of his first tasks should be to draw up a future vision for agriculture and food. Hansen revealed an initial insight into his plans at the end of October in the written answers he gave to questions from the EU Parliament. Among others, he writes: “For farmers to get decent revenue from the market, they need to be able to negotiate fair prices. At the moment, however, many farmers are not in a position to do this because of their weaker negotiating power and lack of market transparency. I am committed to further strengthening farmers’ bargaining power and minimizing the risk of them being systematically forced to sell below production costs.” On paper at least, the new Commissioner is showing signs of a new approach to agricultural policy in the EU.

Besides the specific content of the Commissioner’s agricultural vision, which we are all curious about, it will also depend on how vehemently Hansen is able to assert and pursue the targets he has set. A whole number of players in Europe must meanwhile be well aware of the urgent need to improve the position of producers in the food chain, and that in future, only a profitable agricultural sector will ensure that there will be enough farmers to produce the quantities of food that are needed. Numerous civil society organisations also support the producer organisations in their efforts to obtain fair prices. But there are also voices being raised in industry and politics that clearly oppose a fair distribution of margins in the food supply chain, and also in bodies such as the newly founded EU Agri-Food Chain Observatory (AFCO), which tend to put the brakes on efforts being made for greater transparency and fairness in the chain, rather than making any progress in this respect.

The farmers expect the new Commissioner for Agriculture to take a constructive approach in this tug of war, and to flex his muscles. Only then will it be possible to make further process with the important reforms of the Directive on Unfair Trading Practices (UTP) and those of the Common Agricultural Policy, so that these can make an impact and send the right signals to the farmers.

More than every other Commissioner for Agriculture before him, the new incumbent finds himself confronted with shrinking numbers of farms and the threatening decline of food production in the EU. Hansen, who is now responsible for food as well as agriculture, will therefore be forced to take the agricultural sector into a new future where the social, economic and ecological aspects are combined. That is the only way for the hitherto still vague objectives to actually lead into a new EU agricultural policy. It will not be easy to make a success of reforming the sector along these lines, if Hansen does actually make a serious effort to do so. He will have to withstand strong headwinds from industry and politics. For the farmers, it remains to be seen how steadfast their new EU Commissioner for Agriculture will prove to be in the years to come.

Silvia Däberitz, European Milk Board (EMB)

In an open letter sent on 7 October 2024 to the President of the European Commission, the President of the Agrifish Council and the President of the European Parliament, European farmer and agri-food worker organisations have demanded a fast-track procedure be initiated by the end of the year to add purchasing agricultural and food products under the cost of production to the Unfair Trading Practices Directive black list.

Farmers For Action UK NI have connections with EMB that date back to its origins. We are very grateful for this opportunity to connect with EMB members and everything EMB is trying to achieve, which is an extremely difficult process, against bureaucracy and the corporate food industry. Over recent years, we have worked on a legislative bill to ensure cost-covering farm-gate prices for farmers. In 2013, we set about bringing farm organisations in Northern Ireland together under Northern Ireland Farm Groups to work on a legislation bill on farm-gate prices to return to farmers a minimum of the true and inflation-adjusted cost of production plus a margin.

You couldn’t miss it: on 12 September, the BDM rolled up at the Agricultural Ministers’ Conference with a 650-tonne mobile crane with an axle load of 12 tonnes, proclaiming its message for all to see: we must tackle the big issues! To give the ministers and their chiefs of staff attending the conference an idea of what these big issues are, we invited them to get a “bird’s-eye rather than frog’s-eye view for the urgently needed realignment of agricultural policy” from a height of 60 metres in the basket – for a symbolic and real overview with an opportunity for political discussions at the same time.