Anti-FFA collective action in Brussels
mPeople who wanted to go to the Forum for the Future of Agriculture (FFA) found the main entrance through chained activists. Several fluorescent liquids on their companions who lay on the ground, to test the toxicity and boots of the pesticides produced by chemical giant Syngenta, one of the main organizers of the forum.
Against ‘lobby’ and ‘greenwashing’
The flyers distributed by activists denounce a lobbying and greenwashing operation aimed at strengthening the influence of the chemical and agri-food industries, with speakers and guests coming directly from the European institutions.
Frans Timmermans, Vice-President of the European Commission and responsible for the Green Deal, and Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, were invited along with representatives of the lobbying organizations of the food industry and of multinationals.
Nina Holland, at Corporate Europe Observatory, explains: “It is alarming to see the European Commissioner responsible for proposing a text on pesticide research in Europe, spending the day with industry, lobbying to to reduce European ambitions for the reduction of pesticides.
In an “outdated agricultural system”
Since the adoption of the EU’s “Farm to Fork” (F2F) strategy in May 2020, activists say the pesticide industry and major agricultural lobby have waged a substantiated lobbying campaign to undermine the F2F strategy. “Syngenta, along with the other major pesticide manufacturers (BASF, Bayer and Corteva), and their lobbying group CropLife Europe, oppose any binding pesticide reduction targets that are also remotely ambitious. Their lobbying could lead to farmers being locked into an outdated agricultural system,” it said.
Environmental NGOs
The organizers of the action say they regret the presence of environmental NGOs, such as WWF and The Nature Conservancy, at the event. They envision the presence in the state agribusiness that they are open to environmental issues, open to the agribusiness that ramps up the pressure on the government to nip in the bud any ambition to come up with one that a just and transition of European sustainable agricultural subsidies.
Camille, in part explains her presence: “The agribusiness is spending millions to design its dominance in our food system. We have our bodies and our voices, and we are determined to use them to stop them.”
Alternative possible?
The organizations want to advertise alternative avenues for the future of the food system. Manuel Eggen, from FIAN Belgium, explains: “To preserve quality conditions for farmers in the North and in the South, and agricultural practices that take care of nature, we located agroecology, peasant agriculture. These are diametrically opposed to the models and solutions defended by the agro-industry.” According to Astrid Ayral of the agricultural union FUGEA, “a forum organized by multinationals, in which farmers are not given a central place, has no legitimacy to discuss the future of agriculture.”
FIAN Belgium – MV