Europe’s hunger for land is driving deforestation around the world, and makes the EU complicit in the Amazon fires. To save the Amazon and fight climate breakdown, EU farming policy has to change, writes Marco Contiero.

People around the world have been shocked by the images of pristine Amazon rainforest in flames, and the dire warnings from scientists of the severe consequences that this destruction has – for local biodiversity, Indigenous Peoples and the global climate.

All over the world, young people are taking to the streets, asking for immediate political action to avoid the worst effects of climate breakdown. Many are demanding protection for the world’s forests, our best line of defense against climate chaos, and are asking our society to stop gorging itself on meat and dairy.

Because they know: these fires and their impacts are not natural disasters, they are very much man-made – forests in South America are purposefully cleared to make way for cattle farms, or to grow animal feed.

More shockingly perhaps, although others poured the petrol and lit the matches, Europe shares the responsibility for these forest fires.

Source: Europe’s overloaded land is driving forest destruction and climate breakdown – EURACTIV.com

Fires that consume the Amazon rainforest are often started by farmers who are attempting to meet the growing demand for soybeans. Now, France wants to convince its European partners of the EU’s potential role as a leader on the plant protein market. EURACTIV France reports.

Fires in the Amazon rainforest have put a spotlight on South American agricultural production practices. The agricultural sector has been accused of deliberately starting fires in the Cerrado, Brazil’s tropical savanna, and then exploiting the land.

The land is then used to produce soya, cotton and even corn, which EU member states are happy to buy because of competitive prices.

The catastrophic environmental consequences have prompted French President  Emmanuel Macron to propose establishing “European ‘sovereignty’ on protein”, as well as to suspend his support of the EU-Mercosur trade agreement.

In its “hooked on meat” report published last June, Greenpeace stated that “Europe is fueling the climate crisis with its soya addiction.”

Source: Protein discussion likely to be on next European Commission agenda – EURACTIV.com

This year’s intense drought in France has already led to the elimination of fallow fields. It has also created tensions that are not so favorable to the negotiations over the EU’s new Common Agricultural Policy. EURACTIV France reports.

According to France’s main agricultural trade union, FNSEA, 14,000 farms out of 440,000 have filed compensation claims, following the extreme heat and lack of rain that ravaged France during the spring and summer.

These periods of extreme heat and rain have created severe problems for a sector that is already fragile. Crop loss leads to a loss of revenue, especially for the summer crops, such as maize, sugar beet, potatoes and pastures, which have been hit the hardest.

Winter crops, such as wheat, barley and rapeseed, are doing quite well in terms of volumes, but international market prices are relatively low.

Source: France’s path towards sustainable farming eroded by increased droughts – EURACTIV.com