Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1515420
the European media, please note) of just how 'good' the eternally-benevolent EU has always been to them, in the past - how it showered their sector with subsidies running into 60 billion euros, no less! – only to be repaid for their generosity, with this unsightly, undignified 'public display of rank ingratitude'… All of which, I am the first to admit, makes for very satisfac- tory, melodramatic narrative – if nothing else, because the 'bad guys' are so easily identi- fiable, by their aggression and 'rough country manners' (the equivalent of 'eye-masks' and 'bags of swag', from the old Batman cartoons…) But like all classic superhero stories, this one turns out to be kind of, um… how can I put it? … WRONG. Right, let's get a couple of things out of the way first. The real reasons why Europe- an farmers are so irate, at the moment, are – as their Mal- tese counterparts put it, dur- ing their own display of ingrat- itude last Friday – 'many and various'. In the East of Europe, the concern appears to primari- ly be 'imports from Ukraine': which has been allowed to flood European markets with its own (much cheaper) pro- duce, as compensation for the loss of so many other markets (mostly, in Africa) as a result of the Russian invasion. In the West, however – es- pecially, in France – the main cause for complaint is that the EU is currently in the process of finalising an internation- al trade deal (focusing mostly on agricultural imports) with the 'Mercorsur' bloc in South America: a trade zone featur- ing almost all that continent's (rather sizeable) countries. Among many other things, we are told that: "For Merco- sur the planned deal will elim- inate 93% of tariffs to the EU and grant 'preferential treat- ment' for the remaining 7%. The deal will allow increased access to the European mar- ket for Mercosur's agricultural goods, notably beef, poultry, sugar and ethanol." And this is where most – if not all – of the current griev- ances actually stem from. For while European farmers have to abide by strict standardi- sation practices, mandated by the EU – including, but not limited to, the amount of pesti- cide used in crop-cultivation – South American farmers have none (or very few) of these ob- stacles to contend with. So while European farmers are expected to lower their own pesticide usage (to stick with that example, for now) to 20%... the EU is negotiating a deal that would allow coun- tries like Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, and Columbia to flood the European market with produce that has possibly been cultivated using much MORE pesticide, than that. And that's just one aspect of the deal. Another is the issue known in European circles as 'carbon mileage': best ex- plained by this excerpt from an interview with representa- tives of the 'Kooperativa Rurali Manikata' (Mario Cardona and Malcolm Borg) in September, 2019: "Ever since we joined the EU, the market for local agricul- ture has become very precari- ous […] Because if you want to influence, say, the price of 'qa- rghabaghli'; all you have to do is go to Sicily, flood the local market with Sicilian 'qargha- baghli', and… from one day to the next, the price plummets. "Now: it is also true that the consumer has benefitted from this, in terms of more variety, and better prices… but it all comes at an environmental cost. The further away you im- port your fruit and veg from, the more transport is involved in getting them here: and that means more carbon miles." More 'carbon miles', natural- ly, means 'more CO2 pumped into the atmosphere': this time, by the thousands upon thou- sands of 'trains, planes, auto- mobiles, and cargo-freighters' that would have to be involved, in transporting all that South American produce, all those thousands of miles, to Europe. And all for what? To replace a steady source of home- grown food that we already had – right here, on our own doorstep! – but were willing to just throw away (along with Europe's 'food-sovereignty', of course), for a deal which will clearly benefit South Ameri- can countries, far more than ourselves. And that's not to mention the cost to the environment, in terms of deforestation: par- ticularly, in the Amazon rain- forest (which is not called 'the Lungs of Planet Earth' for no reason, you know…) Once again: while Europe- an farmers are asked to sac- rifice 4% of their own land, governments all over South America are busy chopping down ever-greater swathes of virgin rain-forest: mostly, to accommodate all the pasture and grazing-land that will be needed, to produce all that South American beef (which will, in turn, soon outprice all the local products, on the mar- ket today… forcing European farmers into bankruptcy, in the process). There. Suddenly, those 'evil greedy European farmers' don't look quite so much like the 'classic Panto villains' they are currently being made to re- semble… do they, now? maltatoday | SUNDAY • 4 FEBRUARY 2024 OPINION 11 According to nearly all Europe's mainstream media, the EU – which, as we all know, always represents 'The Greater Good of All Mankind' – is valiantly trying to protect our vulnerable planet, from the har mful effects of Climate Change… PHOTO: JAMES BIANCHI / MALTA TODAY