Generational issues and consumer miscommunication were among the main issues affecting young farmers which were highlighted at the European Council of Young Farmers (CEJA) conference this week.
The conference in Brussels aimed to highlight the road to financial and environemtal sustainability for upcoming farmers in Europe.
“We need a new road of sustainability that makes young farmers unite environment and food production. One that couples economic stability with environmental stability,” Diana Lenzi, CEJA president said.
Lenzi is concerned about the increasing age profile of farmers, labelling the issue an “emergency”.
“We ask have we done enough? Clear(ly) not with the percentage of farms operated by under 40s.
“Young farmers are missing the instruments to take over farms successfully. Yet we are stubborn enough to keep trying until we succeed,” Lenzi said.
CEJA conference
Only 10% of farmers are under the age of 40 in the EU and the average age is 57, according to Lenzi. Only 3% represents young, female farmers.
Young farmers are dealing with pressing environmental issues and food challenges, but CEJA aims to empower young farmers to improve the sector.
Thomas Duffy, vice-president of CEJA and former Macra president, believes this can be done with the help of older farmers.
Duffy said that young farmers may inherit land that is not up to standard and it results in the creation of boundaries.
He said we need to make sure there’s a standard of welfare that we all agree upon.
“We have to make sure there’s flexibility there for farmers who are clearly making an effort to improve.
“Young farmers do not have access to the credit that older farmers may have,” Duffy said.
Consumer communication
Duffy also highlighted a lack of communication between the consumer and farmer as an issue affecting young farmers. He said that there needs to be recognition that everyone has a different view of what animal welfare means.
“The image of the farmer the consumer has doesn’t always align with reality. Sometimes we have to explain the specificities of some species, [i.e.] all chickens do not like to be outside,” he said.
He also said that “while the consumer is certainly dealing with a cost-of-living crisis”, farmers are dealing with a cost of production crisis.
“Make sure that we protect the animal but also its carer,” Duffy said.
The former Macra president also mentioned the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) and said that it should be explained more to consumers.
Sometimes, he said, consumers view the use of AI as wrong, but that farm technology can actually help identify sickness early on.
At the conference, Frans Timmermans, executive vice-president for the EU green deal, spoke about the high costs of organic produce compared to traditional produce, highlighting the understanding of why consumers opt for the “non-organic”.
“We need to make it clearer that with public policies, we reduce premiums, so we stimulate farmers to adopt more sustainable production.
“And we stimulate consumers, reducing the premium to such an extent that average consumers will make the step into biological products, into sustainable products. That is what we will need to do,” Timmermans said.
He believes young farmers need to face their challenges head on, particularly in relation to environmental sustainability.
“If we really want to make sure we have sustainable food production over a long period of time, we need to look ‘beasty’ in the eye.
“And ‘beasty’ is not just the climate crisis, but also the biodiversity crisis. If we see that pollinators are disappearing at an incredible rate and that half of the crops in Europe depend on pollinators, we need to save pollinators,” Timmermans said.
He said policies that will save pollinators and alternatives to chemical pesticides are needed. He also expressed the need for AI for farmers to be more precise.