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Minister Eamon Ryan is delighted with himself – “thrilled”, even.
He is claiming that the votes cast by all 13 Irish MEPs in the European Parliament were “critical” in passing the Nature Restoration bill which critics say will be a disaster for rural communities.
From Breakingnews.ie:
The Green Party leader said Ireland had taken a very strong position in the European Council and in the European Parliament, and that all Irish MEPs had “swung” the final tally.
The European Parliament supported the general outlines of the European Commission proposals in a razor-thin 324-312 vote, with 12 abstentions.
The razor-thin vote occurred because the largest group in the European Parliament, the European People’s Party (EPP), had “staunchly opposed the draft law”, which they say could significantly reduce the amount of land used for agriculture or fishing, with impacts on the cost of food production and rural living.
The EPP said this week the law would be “a disaster for rural communities, farmers and fisherman and public authorities having to deal with the legal consequences.”
They point out that, under current EU law, farmers are already obliged to set aside 4% of their land to allow for nature to recover.
But the new law goes much further, insisting that nature be restored in 20% of areas that are “in need of restoration” by 2030 – and repaired completely by 2050. That would be a huge jump in the amount of land to be set aside or restored.
Its all a bit vague in that the areas supposedly targeted seem to be very broadly defined – and critics say “the definition is so broad that the legal application could affect almost all European territory.”
Supporters of the move say that the measure is necessary because of what they described as a “failure to achieve the common goals of restoring destroyed ecosystems”.
But the EPP has warned that proposals for EU-wide binding targets for pesticide reduction and nature restoration will reduce European food production.
“Since the Farm to Fork strategy was first introduced, the EPP Group has constantly asked the Commission for a thorough impact assessment. So far, we haven’t seen one. How can the Commission expect the Parliament to approve new legislation without knowing the impacts?”, asked Herbert Dorfmann of the EPP.
“We have to take steps towards better controlled and targeted use of plant protection substances, but measures without wise consideration may only deepen the problems of our domestic food production and lead to growing imports. This is not in our common interest”, Dorfmann added.
“That is why we are convinced that we must vote to reject the Commission proposal. We are guided by science, but also by social and economic realities that affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people in Europe. They should be taken seriously,” the group said.
The meme below posted by the European Parliament grouping captured a lot of attention on social media, and was criticised as scare-mongering but its an inescapable fact that rural communities are shrinking across Europe, while Eurostat tells us that there were 5.3 million fewer farms in the bloc in 2020 compared to 2005.
For the @EPPGroup, preserving & protecting nature for future generations is a priority.
We want to protect our ecosystems & biodiversity better, but we must do it wisely.
Agriculture, forestry & nature protection must work hand in hand.#FoodSecurity https://t.co/dI9T5yynsD pic.twitter.com/amgahWOi82
— EPP Group (@EPPGroup) March 11, 2023
Its also true that, just last month, the EU Parliament also urged that measures be taken to “strengthen its food security and the resilience of the agricultural sector.”
MEPs said that the bloc “needed to become less dependent on third countries and diversify its import supplies of critical products such as fertilisers, feed and raw materials”.
In fact, while the EU is a net exporter of food stuff, much of the cereals, sugar, oils, nuts and other food stuff the bloc imports is now being produced by suppliers in countries who send it thousands of miles to reach European producers.
And its not just grains or oils or coffee: anyone shopping in Irish supermarkets will have noticed that much of our vegetables now seem to come from abroad – with a recent UCD report finding that, in 2020, 890 thousand tonnes of fruit and vegetables were imported into Ireland, a 42% increase on 1992.
But because we live in a time of well-stocked supermarkets, and because most of us have only a vague understanding of the skill and expertise required for farming, we can’t imagine the consequences of a failure in food security.
It seems to me that the stance often taken by the Greens, and then adopted unthinkingly by the other political parties, makes no sense: it amounts to a relentless demonization of farmers and rural communities while ignoring the invaluable and utterly essential contribution they make to our well-being.
We can live without Tiktok, or flat screen TVs, and even without designer runners, but we can’t live without food. A little gratitude wouldn’t go astray.
The Greens also say they want an end to intensive farming – and to carbon emissions – yet the anti-farming mentality of much of the policies proposed by the EU and the government seems to happily sit besides importing apples from Peru, and meat from Brazil, and turf from Latvia.
What happens if farmers, and fishers, eventually just have enough of the hardship and endless criticism and all decide to work in marketing or some NGO instead? We might find that growing lettuce in window boxes just doesn’t really cut the mustard.
Are we fully considering the impact on ordinary families if land restoration, combined with higher input costs and further energy crises, push food costs higher and higher?
And if the EPP are right, and a comprehensive analysis of the impact of rewilding large tracts of agricultural land hasn’t been examined, then the bloc might be stumbling into a new reality for which it would be grossly unprepared.
It is now being pointed out that a failure to conduct a cost benefit analysis of Covid lockdowns resulted in hugely negative consequences for excess deaths, untreated illnesses, schooling, children’s development and much more.
It is surely incumbent on the EU to carry out such an analysis of its Green policies in relation to farming – and to do so in a transparent and widely consultative fashion.
But never mind, because Eamon Ryan is “thrilled” to have the latest EU Green Deal pushed through and to be able to boast that “the Irish votes were critical, those Irish votes swung it.”
The term useful idiots might yet come back to haunt us, as we undermine food security and possibly energy security and future economic growth while many of the players in the rest of the world outside Europe continue to do whatever they want.
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