(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
NRK recently released the Norwegian-German TV series The Seed. The series provides a critical look at the relationship between democratic and economic power in the EU system. In the TV series, the heroes are individuals from journalism, international top politics and the police who fight together against the commercial agro-industry, which tries to control the EU's agricultural policy.
In the TV series The Seed wins over a commercial seed group with the help of a politically correct argument. A super seed must ensure a "robust food production", understood as independent of the chemical industry's dominance with pesticides and artificial fertilisers. This is how the EU can achieve peace and abolish famine (and the flow of refugees to Europe).
The chemical industry supplies solutions for commercial agriculture in the EU to a value of more than 12 billion euros annually.
"Innovations" (eg GM seeds) means that local poor farmers enter into lifelong contract-based debt relationships with global ones seed groupis in the West, precisely as it appears in The Seed. In reality, the chemical industry's "modern innovations" are presented as solutions to climate change and soil health, but it is rare that these problems are caused by the chemical industry itself. In reality, it is precisely the enormous use of chemical pesticides, artificial fertilizers and patented GM seeds that pose the dangers in EU agriculture.
The underlying motive i The Seed is thus the large corporations' influence on and attempt to dominate political processes. How transparent is the EU system, and how can the political apparatus be influenced?
Plant protection solutions
The current EU law Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was adapted to the new commercial of the 60s industrial agriculture, a monocultural farming operation over huge areas, completely dependent on the chemical industry's plant protection solutions, now dominated by landowners, farmers and commercial agri-companies.
In 2019, the European Commission launched «Farm to Fork»- agreement, part of the EU's Green Deal which contained an extensive reduction in the use of pesticides. The Sustainable Use Regulation legislation (SUR) was necessary for qualitative food security and to create a food system with fair, health-promoting and environmentally friendly agriculture.
The SUR legislation was a key element in Green Deal. Each EU country had to commit to to reduce the use of chemical pesticides by 50 percent by 2030. The new POSTAL CODE- the legislation was supposed to ensure a fair financial transition during the operational restructuring.
6000 researchers supported the SUR proposal. The extensive use of pesticides in agriculture damaged biodiversity – the damages were comparable to the perspective of consequences in the lawsuits against the tobacco industry and fossil fuel companies.
Consumers also wanted a sharp reduction in the use of chemical agents in agriculture. In 2023, 1,1 million Europeans demanded citizens even stricter downscaling (80 per cent) and a phasing out of the use of pesticides in agriculture.But on 22 November 2023, the SUR law was stopped and voted down in the European plenary meeting in Strasbourg. What happened?
EUs Farm to Fork# strategy has been under attack from the very beginning, especially the SUR legislation and the Act on Nature Restoration. In 2022, the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) demonstrated in the report A loud lobby for a silent spring. The pesticide industry’s toxic lobbying tactics against Farm to Fork that the chemical industry and lobbying companies delayed and derailed the EU's Farm to Fork strategy. The sources were leaks from large lobby associations such as Copa-Cogeca and CropLife Europe as well as information from LobbyFacts og EU Transparency Register.
The Agricultural Lobby
The European Commission is subject to public disclosure laws, for example through transparency into the frequency and content of lobby meetings. National diplomats who work in the council, on the other hand, are not subject to such publicity laws (cf. CEO). Since each EU-countries have a permanent representation in the EU's power system, rather the agricultural lobby influences national authorities and the European Parliament, both of which can change the Commission's proposal.
The attack on SUR has derailed a number of other Green Deal promises: the Food Systems Act, a ban on the export of prohibited pesticides, as well as animal welfare legislation.
The chemical industry supplies solutions for commercial agriculture in the EU to a value of more than 12 billion euros annually. The market is dominated by four large groups – Bayer, BASF, Syngenta and Corteva.
The report shows that in addition to the chemical groups' own consultants and lobbyists fronted CropLife Europe and the Bayer-funded seed company Euroseeds and five other lobby companies (COCERAL, CIBE, CEFS, Agriculture & Progress and the think tank FarmEurope) the political interests of the chemical industry against the SUR legislation. In total, the lobbying contracts were worth over 50 million euros in 2020-2023. Lobbythe company Rud Pedersen (with a former Swedish social democratic prime minister on the payroll) also represented Bayer for 800 000 euro. Also agriculture's own lobby company, Copa Cogeca, worked actively to weaken the SUR legislation (with contracts of 1.5 million euros). Through media solutions (such as articles in Politico, a company that sponsored by Bayer) the decision-makers are influenced.
Successful sabotage
The influence campaigns were successful. Already autumn 2022 repeated 16 ministers of agriculture the pesticide industry's demand for more "impact assessments" from the commission.
In the fight against the SUR law, the conservative parliamentary group EPP (von der Leyden's party) emerged as the chemical industry's political ally. In June 2023, the Conservatives attacked the Nature Restoration Act (Green Deal) with support from a number of liberals.
For example then French Prime Minister Macron called for non-launched agricultural plans in the EU to be put on hold. This gave Belgian Prime Minister De Croo the opportunity to repeat the attack on SUR, which derailed a number of other Green Deal promises: the Food Systems Act, a ban on the export of prohibited pesticides, as well as animal welfare legislation.
Quantitative food security
During the debate, a term change occurred. Qualities such as fair, health-promoting and environmentally friendly agriculture were met with arguments about «reorientering towards security and sustainability", against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. . During 2022, 'food security' became a quantitative term. LobbyFacts and CEO traces the developments about quantitative food security to right-wing groups.
In June 2023, the German conservatives (von der Leyden's party) attacked the nature restoration law (Green Deal).
In the TV series, individuals try to save poor small farmers from GMO industrial agriculture, on the verge of suicide and illegal action. In reality sabotaging the chemical industry necessary EU-reformer in collaboration with landlords and landowners, right-wing and (neo)liberal, to prevent the development of a fairer and more environmentally friendly EU agriculture. Consumers, agricultural workers, farmers and the professional field are left behind without the opportunity to ensure a qualitative improvement atproduktion#en.
