The European Council of Young Farmers (CEJA) has launched a campaign to advocate for the protection of agricultural land for young farmers.
The campaign #LandStories will raise awareness of young farmers affected by “land take”, the process of converting agricultural land into areas designated for construction and urban infrastructure.
CEJA seeks to preserve the land in the European Union (EU) through this campaign, as it says the EU’s goals towards sustainable soil management are undermined by rendering the land unsuitable for farming through land take.
Campaign launched
With the conversion of agricultural land into non-agricultural areas reaching “alarming levels,” CEJA vice-president Anne-Catherine Dalcq gave her opinions ahead of the campaign launch.
“As many young farmers in Europe, I find myself personally impacted by the unpredictability of land use decisions which disrupts our long-term investment plans and undermines efforts to improve soil quality.
“This adds to the already limited availability of land, inflated prices due to competition, and uncertain leases,” Dalcq said.
“Our campaign is also a call on EU policymakers to recognise the value of agricultural land and the critical role it plays, not only for sustainable food production, climate change and biodiversity, but also for the challenge of generational renewal in agriculture,” she added.
Young farmers
One of the young farmers heard in the #LandStories campaign was Pieter, a dairy farmer in Belgium who spoke about the impact that the construction of a ring road has had on his area.
“Me and other farmers will be compelled to give up highly productive agricultural land to offset the loss of forests and nature caused by the construction project,” he said.
In Luxembourg, Marc, who is also a young farmer, said that land around him was being used for construction and that he had lost 10ha to the developments.
“I planned to create a flowering meadow on the isolated 4ha of my farm to meet sustainability requirements, but the state agency in charge of the land opposed the idea, fearing that the increase in biodiversity and animal habitats would hinder future urban development,” he said.
Land take
The issue of land take is key to CEJA’s campaign, as it aims to show the impact it is having on young farmers.
Describing the process as “akin to soil sealing”, CEJA said covering soil with impermeable material such as concrete or asphalt is one of the main causes of soil degradation in the EU.
This process will create problems for the security of an adequate stock of arable land for food production, according to CEJA.
Between 2000 and 2018, a total of 1.4 million hectares of land were converted in the EU, which is 11 times greater than the amount of land re-cultivated during the same period.
CEJA regards the forthcoming EU Soil Health Law as “a pivotal opportunity to address the pressing issue of land take”, where stricter regulations can be implemented on “land conversion and urban sprawl”.
The law has the objective to “specify the conditions for a healthy soil, determine options for monitoring soil, and lay out rules conducive to sustainable soil use and restoration”.