Polish farmers’ organisations yesterday ended a blockade of Ukrainian agricultural exports that has dragged on for months (see here and here). The farmers were promised subsidies from the Polish government and a system of checks to ensure the goods are transited through Poland to other destinations. But many of the tensions underlying the protests remain. This guest post by EVA GELINSKY (written in March, while the blockade was in place) explains the background.
Farmers across Europe have been protesting for months – and although the protests are dying down in many places, partly due to seasonal factors, further actions can be expected. In eastern Europe, protests and blockades are continuing, and these are primarily directed against agricultural imports from Ukraine.
Demonstrations, strikes and blockades by farmers in Europe are not a new phenomenon. Since the beginning of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), i.e. for more than 60 years, there have always been fierce protests.
Despite several deep-going reforms, the fundamental aim of European Union (EU) agricultural policy is still to orientate agriculture and supply towards the standards of industrial capitalist production and the global agricultural market.
Because this structural change has a serious impact on farms and the environment, complicated new measures and regulations have been introduced time and again, for decades. These are intended to steer structural change in a regulated manner, cushion the hardships that arise and minimise the worst environmental damage.
Even if this policy of “grow or die” forces many farms to give up, and drives others into debt, the result is extremely successful: even after the UK’s withdrawal, the EU is (as of 2022) the second largest agricultural trading power in the world (after China and ahead of the USA).
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