European farmer protests and the political battleground around sustainable agriculture with Tim Benton, Chatham House
Description
Recent farmer protests across Europe have highlighted the political battleground around sustainable agriculture. The absence of effective policies and support for a just transition to Net Zero is positioning farmers as political pawns who are being exploitation by people outside the farming community pushing their own agendas.
Farmers are increasingly being squeezed between decreasing margins, increasing costs, increasing regulations, less market power. At the same time the growing politicisation of the rural urban divide is not focused on actually addressing farmer livelihoods but is being fuelled to drive the political agendas of people outside the agricultural community. At the same time the increasing fiscal demands of extreme weather events and geopolitical instability are in direct competition with funding for climate mitigation strategies.
Tim Benton is Research Director for the Environment, and society at Chatham House where he studies food security and food systems and how to increase their resilience to climate change, reduce their environmental footprints and improve public health through nutrition. In his recent paper on the European farmer protests he highlighted the need for a just transition as farmers are being squeezed between increasing regulatory framework and prices they are receiving for their produce. I recently caught up with Tim to discuss the politics around these global farmer protests, the costs involved in managing the impacts of climate change on our economies compared, and the lack of political will to take on the necessary investment.
You can listen to our conversation here.
United States
