Stephen Cadogan: You thought all you had to do was produce food and get paid a fair price for it
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Anyone who thought EU farmers are angry because they work hard for small pay has been put right by the EU.
Instead, farmer protests across Europe earlier this year have been blamed on rising societal tensions, by the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture, a meeting of Eurocrats with leaders of the agri-food sector, civil society, rural communities and academia. They have slaved since January to reach a common understanding.
And their understanding of the situation is that European society is increasingly strained by social conflicts. Consensus and compromise are gradually replaced by confrontation and discord. Political, generational, territorial, and socio-economic cleavages are deepening.
"This notably concerns the perception of a growing divide between rural and urban areas". The unrest in farmers reflects these societal tensions.
Most farmers will probably respond with: "What a load of codswallop".
The strategic dialogue also blamed increasingly polarised public discourse on migration, climate change, culinary and dietary styles, public health, socio-economic inequalities, and new technologies.
It said in some parts of Europe, these sentiments have caused illiberal political currents, seriously damaging the rule of law and democratic institutions.
"Where long-held certainties are being questioned and established systems challenged, where discourse is confrontational and external pressures are mounting, dialogue, co-operation and trust are needed more than ever before.
"This holds true just as much for the agri-food sector as for society at large.
"Only through respectful close co-operation between all stakeholders of the value chain can the complex challenges of the future of food and farming in Europe be transformed into gainful opportunities for all".
And you thought all you had to do was produce food and get paid a fair price for it? Maybe it is a measure of the fear in Brussels of "right-wingers under the bed" that they must blame what they seem to perceive as a maddening of EU society for the protests by farmers, surely the most pragmatic sector within that EU society, a sector whose rural location probably insulates it from new political waves sweeping through the EU's big population centres.
Maybe continental Europe, with its centuries of peasant rebellions, is paranoid about protesting farmers?
But from the Irish standpoint, protesting farmers felt they were being regulated out of business by Brussels bureaucrats and national agriculture officials far removed from the reality of day-to-day farming.
That was why the IFA launched its Enough is Enough campaign of support for their continental colleagues. IFA also said farmers across mainland Europe were voicing their anger and frustration at an ever-increasing administrative burden, and protests originated in Germany due to the government there proposing to make agricultural diesel more expensive and to raise taxes on farm vehicles.
Not so, says the strategic dialogue: farmers were driven crazy by rising EU political tension, and must now calm down and toe the line in respectful close cooperation all along the food chain.
They must pay attention to the dialogue's 50 pages of recommendations on how to "reconcile agriculture with nature", 18 pages of which are under the heading of sustainability.
Success, according to the dialogue, requires market conditions and food environments to be organised in such a way that environmentally sustainable practices are in the economic self-interest of producers, processors, retailers, traders and consumers.
In other words, business as usual, despite what the dialogue report acknowledged as "vehement" farmers’ protests and said a win-win was needed so “agriculture and the protection of the natural world can go hand in hand”.
Presumably, that includes the German government going ahead with its farm fuel and vehicle taxes because fossil fuel is unsustainable. It will be interesting to see what German farmers think of that.
First, the EU Commission will consider the dialogue report’s recommendations when shaping its Vision for EU Agriculture, to be presented within the first 100 days of President Ursula von der Leyen's reign as EU Commission president. Hopefully, her conclusions will be more relevant to the practicalities of farming.
