The European Commission has been told that it must carry out and complete economic impact assessments of the EU’s “green strategies” – namely that Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies.

Speaking today (Friday, December 4) after a meeting between representatives of COPA (the umbrella group for European farmer organisations) and the commission’s First Vice-President Franz Timmermans, Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) president Tim Cullinan said: “I told [Timmermans] a full impact assessment is needed to determine how much implementing these strategies will cost.

“Timmermans has threatened to withdraw the commission’s own CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] proposal if it doesn’t take more account of the Farm-to-Fork and Biodiversity Strategies,” Cullinan argued.

Yet he has no idea how much strategies will cost or who will pay for them.

“People are quoting all these targets without any consideration for their impact on output or on production costs for farmers. Farmers cannot be left to carry the can on this,” the IFA president argued.

Speaking of the assessment of these strategies in Ireland specifically, Cullinan called on Teagasc to carry out its own impact assessment on output and production costs for farmers.

“We are deep in discussion on the agri-food 2030 strategy, but again we have a data vacuum,” Cullinan remarked.

It’s incredible that the Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture [USDA] has examined the impact of the ‘Farm to Fork’ Strategy on farm incomes, output and trade, and neither the EU nor Ireland has.

That USDA study showed that, as a result of the Farm to Fork strategy, farm incomes would be reduced 16%, as a result of a drop-off in production which would not be offset by increases in market prices.

Cullinan noted that, as a result of the fall in production, EU food exports would fall by 20% and imports would increase by 2%, resulting in an increase in the cost of food by €132 per person in the EU.

“If these figures are correct, they would be devastating for European farmers. Yet the commission doesn’t know, or won’t tell us, what the assessment of the impact will be,” he concluded.