Joint statement in solidarity with farmers in Europe

This joint statement, signed by the EEB alongside 18 other European civil society organisations, is a unified expression of solidarity with Europe’s farmers who continue to get an unfair deal from the current agriculture and food system.

For decades, the EU’s market-driven, trade-oriented approach to agriculture has led to an EU farming system that is environmentally, socially and economically unsustainable. Farmers are among the first victims of this system that is fuelled by rampant overproduction, profit maximisation, market speculation and waste. At the grave expense of our environment, farmers’ livelihoods, people’s health, quality of food, long-term food security, and broader social wellbeing.

Instead of pursuing a comprehensive and just transition to socially and environmentally sustainable food systems, public authorities continue to resort to short-term concessions to powerful agribusiness and food industry lobbies. This cannot go on.

Farmers need to be at the centre of discussions on the future of agriculture, and we stand ready with them to shape a system that works for us all.