IDM ¦ Editorial
A box full of
crazy ideas
EU Farm2Fork strategy
Where does the European Green Deal lead the dairy sector to? No one knows, no one can know
at this stage, but assessements can be made. An article by Christophe Lafougere (Gira) in this issue
summarises in part what we might reasonably have to expect.
Milk production could fall by up to 8%, and the price of milk could rise by more than 10%. All
caused by making the EU dairy sector more sustainable, at least in the view of Brussels bureaucracy.
The use of fertiliser and pesticide will see restrictions and given ever higher carbon taxes, the cost
of virtually anything that is made using energy will increase. And that’s about everything we use in
our daily life or in production, processing and packaging of milk.
One central element of the Farm2Fork strategy is organic food. The share of organic agriculture is
to grow to 25%, according to what was issued by the EU Commission. This might mean that several
thousands of farms must be converted from conventional to organic. But what they produce
must also end up on consumers‘ plates. It is highly doubtful whether this will work. People are confronted
with rising costs for living (carbon tax …) and should at the same time spend significantly
more for food. And now Corona has torn a whole in the budget of every country in the EU, most
of them having suffered from severe financial problems even before the pandemic. This means that
taxes won’t be lowered but may be increased instead. So it seems there won’t be too much left in
consumers‘ pockets to bring the Farm2Fork concept to life.
The EU ideology bears another danger: organic milk may become available in abundance and the
oversupply may bring down the price levels. Organic milk production would then need even more
subsidies if it was to survive. It is easy to see why this box of crazy ideas called Farm2Fork will fail
miserably, thinks Roland Sossna.
Roland Sossna
Editor IDM
International Dairy Magazine
sossna@blmedien.de
international-dairy.com
4 · July/August 2021 ¦ international-dairy.com
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