Last month’s newsletter considered one aspect of the politics of food – the challenge of changing consumer diets.

Since then the politics of food has shot up the news agenda. Tractors have been used to blockade roads in protests that have swept across Europe. Wary of the issue being exploited by the political right, the EU has rolled back on environmental commitments in an attempt to appease the farming lobby.

Fears over what the Financial Times describes as “agricultural populism” come as the far-right are expected to make gains in this years EU election on platforms including opposition to Net Zero policies. In the Netherlands a heavy handed approach to reducing agricultural pollution has in recent years had enormous political consequences. The protests appear to be popular – in France, a poll showed that 87% sympathised with protesting farmers.

More than just Net Zero

Media coverage has been quick to frame the protests as being in response to green measures. And that is certainly part of the story. But, as key EU proposals had already been ditched and no new measures are to date impacting farmers, it seems unlikely that the protests have been provoked by Brussels overreach.

Helpfully, Carbon Brief have produced a summary of the various issues being raised by farmers broken down by country. What this shows is that, while protestors are raising concerns over specific environmental measures, these sit alongside concerns over trade deals, competition from Ukrainian imports, tax changes, and even high insurance costs.

It appears that environmental policies are becoming lightning rods for wider discontent caused by insecurity over the industry’s future.

But, crucially, there’s another side to this environmental story. In Greece, in Spain, and in Romania, farmers are calling for more support to deal with the impact of drought, flooding and extreme weather. In France, research has found an overwhelming majority of farmers believe ecological transition is a necessity (63% agree, 15% disagree).

How to be allies

As farmers globally are already experiencing, climate change and nature loss pose profound risks to their livelihoods. There is no food security without a stable climate and healthy natural environment.

Equally, environmentalists need farmers. There is no route to Net Zero or to reversing nature loss without the active participation of the agricultural sector. The Britain Talks Climate research has also found that farmers are one of the most trusted messengers on environmental issues for right-leaning voters.

Farmers and environmentalists, then, have common cause. Doubtless there will also be disagreements – this is inevitable when pushing for fundamental reform to an industry with deep social and cultural roots. But the environmental sector must find ways to build meaningful alliances, which will require more than warm words.

Notably, the top policy demand for the conservation sector ahead of the UK General Election is a pay rise for farmers.