Month: November 2023

IED: a need for consistency and collective work

Posted on - Posted by Farm Europe

The European institutions reached, yesterday, a provisional deal on the revision of the Industrial Emission Directive (IED), after very tense discussions on whether or not to include certain agricultural sectors in the scope of this regulation. Finally, thanks to the determination of the rapporteurs of the European Parliament, the co-legislators decided not to include the ruminant livestock sector, which is a move welcomed by Farm Europe. They also decided to tighten the thresholds for sectors already covered by this regulation: pig and poultry producers will be affected by this new regulation. 

However, all livestock sectors are covered by two very important — and most welcomed — provisions obtained by the European Parliament : 

  • First, the European Commission will have to “assess, and report to the European Parliament and the Council on the need for Union action to comprehensively address the emissions from the rearing of livestock, in particular cattle, taking into account the range of instruments available and the specificities of the sector”, by December 2026. This is a recognition that the specificities of agriculture should be covered by an adequate regulation, not IED. In other words, this provision paves the way for a potential exclusion of all livestock sectors. Agriculture must be lifted outside the remit of this regulation, and covered by a dedicated framework, as long as farmers are working with nature and animals. This activity should not be assimilated to an industrial activities. Therefore, a fit for purpose framework must be established grasping the complexity of agriculture when it comes to its environmental footprint, but also its co-benefits. 
  • Second, “the Commission should assess, and report to the European Parliament and the Council on the need for Union action to comprehensively address the emissions from the rearing of livestock, in particular cattle, taking into account the range of instruments available and the specificities of the sector”. This provision covers all livestock activities, and calls upon the Commission to set up a level playing field for all product placed on the EU market, meaning both Made in Europe and imported. At a time where the European Union is multiplying efforts to foster trade, producers would, rightly, not understand to be confronted with unfair competition from imported meat with higher environmental footprint. In fact, Europe would be shooting itself in the foot, increasing the burden on its producers, while at the same time opening widely its market. 

Therefore, while the compromise reached by the trilogue is certainly not perfect for all producers, it contains provisions that paves the way for an improved and more consistent approach that require a collective work of all livestock producers together, ahead of the review clauses. 

IED: beyond politics, good reasons not to include ruminant livestock

Posted on - Posted by Farm Europe

The final negotiations on the directive on industrial emissions will address major issues for the future of European livestock farming. There are good reasons to avoid making the mistake of including ruminant livestock farming within the scope of this regulation. 

We consider that the inclusion of ruminant livestock in the scope of IED would even achieve exactly the opposite of what it intends to do, fostering the trend of this industry toward intensification, while decision-makers aim at promoting extensive livestock farming because of its multiple co-benefits including for carbon storage, landscape features and biodiversity. 

That’s why we fully support the approach of the European Parliament on this file, and consider that EU Member States shall follow this path, excluding ruminant livestock from the scope of this regulation, and addressing the challenge of emissions in other dedicated regulatory framework, better grasping the complexity and the need for holistic approaches of this specific sector. 

Dealing with the sustainability of livestock farming solely through the lenses of emissions would offer a premium to the most intensive livestock farming models, in a position of optimising the management of their emissions to the maximum, and missing out on all the positive amenities associated with grass-based livestock farming. 

The directive on industrial emissions provides for the development of best available agricultural techniques (BAT) to take account of each type of livestock farming. The environment ministers are considering a derogation for extensive livestock farming, to exclude farms with less than 2 cattle per hectare. As such, these ideas demonstrate the specific nature of the sector. But in some cases, if those derogations are a response to the administrative burden associated with the IED, they do not resolve the most fundamental problem: future market development, which will give the direction of livestock farming in the future. 

If, in the future, certain type of livestock farming can be draped in virtues on the basis of emissions alone, it is on this parameter alone that major buyers, especially those quoted on the stock exchange will make their purchasing choices in order to comply with the ESG parameters valued by the financial markets. Priority for them will be given to reducing emissions from upstream agriculture, at the expense of all other co-benefits, including animal welfare, biodiversity and balanced regional development. 

Therefore, rather than regulating livestock farming via a simplistic approach, it is appropriate to develop an ad hoc pathway to reducing emissions within a broader framework that takes account of the storage capacity of grasslands and all the other parameters specific to this type of farming, including biodiversity, the impact on the landscape and the contribution to the economic development of remote areas. 

In other words, we need to recognise the reality that ruminant livestock farming is not an industrial activity in Europe. It has no place in a directive on industrial emissions.

NGTs: NGOs AND RETAILERS REACT TO PROPOSAL

Posted on - Posted by Farm Europe

The proposals put forward by the EPP rapporteur for the European Parliament’s COMENVI committee have aroused opposition from the left-wing parties, particularly with regard to authorising the use of category 1 NGTs in organic farming. Alongside the European Parliament, which has stepped up the pace of its work, the Council of Agriculture Ministers is discussing the issue again on 20 November, with a view to adopting a general Council approach (the Council’s negotiating position with the European Parliament).

In Germany, the major retail groups are divided over the issue of NGTs and the need for labelling or not.

For Furhter

Nature Restoration Law: a provisional agreement covering agricultural land

Posted on - Posted by Farm Europe

Four months after the vote in plenary, the Trilogue of 9 November marks the end of the negotiations on the Restoration of Nature regulation. An agreement of the three institutions has been found although it will now have to go through the final scrutiny of the Council and Parliament.

While waiting for the final text of the agreement and the analysis of the details, which are sometimes crucial, we can already see that on the agricultural part, the agreement is closer to the Commission’s proposal and the Council’s position than to that of the Parliament, which had requested the deletion of Article 9, i.e. the complete exclusion of agricultural land from the regulation.

Instead, the agreement reinstates Article 9 and retains its structure but switches from a result-based to an effort-based approach. Furthermore, Member States can choose two of the three proposed indicators (butterfly index; organic carbon stock; share of farmland with high-diversity topographical features). 

The reference to the 10 % objective of high diversity landscape features is deleted.

With regard to peatlands, the restoration targets from the Council general approach are maintained but the rewetting targets for 2040 and 2050 are reduced to a third. 

On forest ecosystem restoration, the indicators on standing and lying deadwood have been recovered, and at least one of the two should be mandatory. The need for Member States to consider the risk of forest fires is included.

Probably to take into consideration the food security debate that has animated the protests against this regulation, the enhacement of food security has been included as an objective in Article 1 of the regulation. 

Furthermore, with regard to financing, it is clarified that the implementation of this regulation does not imply the reprogramming of the Common Agricultural Policy, the Common Fisheries Policy or other agricultural and fisheries financing programmes and instruments under the current MFF. In addition, the European Commission is requested to submit a report on the financial resources available in the EU to implement this regulation and the current funding needs to identify any funding gaps and to present the necessary proposals, including the establishment of specific funding. 

The Parliament obtains as well one of its demands, namely the obligation to plant, by 2030, 3 billion trees following ecological principles. 

It is therefore an agreement that respects the framework desired by the Commission, with its targets and obligations for the Member States that will have to carry the burden of this regulation. However, the EP obtained some adjustments and flexibilities on agriculture in order not to have this regulation in complete contradiction with the challenge of food security, as the Commission proposal envisaged.

NGTs: GERMANY TO ALLOCATE FUNDS FOR R&D

Posted on - Posted by Farm Europe

The German Research Ministry has decided to invest 50 millions in NGTs R&D while some organic association continue to oppose the proposal of the commission.

Convinced by the potential of NGTs, the EP rapporteurs and the Council’s presidency aim at reaching negotiating positions as soon as possible to begin trilogues’ negotiations in early 2024.

Outside the EU, the UK, China and the US progress in CRISPR technologies and modify pigs and chickens against different viruses.