Over the past few months, dozens of investigative reports have looked into how the Big Ag industry has managed to instrumentalize recent farmer protests and capture European democracies. Most recently, journalists unearthed how leaders from the farming sector, with access to politicians and control of media outlets, are actually defending the interests of the top earners rather than the broader farming community.

Just ahead of European elections earlier in June, farmers managed to gain multiple concessions from politicians in an unprecedented roll-back on legislative measures. European Union (E.U.) and national laws and policies on environment, animal welfare, and climate action are being derailed or watered down due to the Big Ag industry’s political clout, preventing the average farmer from creating a level playing field to respond to societal demands. How did we let this happen?

How Big Ag Managed To Influence E.U. Democracies

In 2020, two out of three farms in the E.U. were considered small farms, or smaller than the size of seven football fields combined (less than 5 hectares). However, two-thirds of the E.U.’s agricultural land was used by megafarms, or farms at least 10 times larger than any small farm (50 ha or more). Despite using the vast majority of the E.U.’s agricultural land, megafarms are a small minority, representing only 7.5 % of all farms in the European Union. And yet, they play a crucial role in defining laws and policies in the E.U. and its member states. 

Only last year, a cross-country investigation into the most powerful E.U. farm lobby Copa-Cogeca revealed they are nothing close to being the voice of European farmers and agri-cooperatives, as they claim to be. The policy measures it advocates for are not always in the interests of all farmers, according to interviews with nearly 120 farmers, insiders, politicians, academics, and activists, as well as a survey of 50 Copa-Cogeca affiliates. In fact, what the investigation found is that smaller-scale farmers and younger farmers do not feel represented by Copa-Cogeca. What is more shocking, even the person who was heading the lobby group at the time told one of the journalists involved in that investigation that the survival of small-scale farmers is not realistic at the moment.

This dichotomy between the ‘average’ European farmer and the most powerful European farm lobby is not new. For example, back in 2021, the Association of Private Farming of the Czech Republic left the farm lobby Copa after 16 years, as they disagreed over the E.U.’s farm subsidies reform. The Czech farming organization wanted E.U. farm subsidies to be limited in amount because otherwise most of the funds are allocated to the biggest players. However, the Brussels-based lobby kept pushing for the opposite. The Czech association told the press that “Copa no longer defends the interests of most Czech farmers.”

A more recent cross-country investigation from earlier this year, led by Lighthouse Reports, looked into the key figureheads who speak on behalf of farmers at country-level and whose interests they represent. They gathered testimony and examined company records to build profiles of the influential figures that framed the demands of the protests.

The journalists found that the leaders of the farming lobby groups in France, Italy, Germany, and Poland were nothing like the average farmer they claimed to represent. They are wealthier, sit on the board of multiple companies, and have close links to the Big Ag industry. Many of the leaders of the farmer lobbies control media outlets that cater to the farming community. The journalists documented cases of conflicts of interest, mafia-like bullying, and broken promises.

In France, Lighthouse Reports and the leading French investigative platform Splann! looked into how the country’s biggest farming union, FNSEA, is led by four powerful men (Thierry Coué, André Sergent, Arnaud Rousseau, and Jérôme Despey), who hold positions that can conflict with those of farmers. They have responsibilities in a wide range of public and private bodies, including in public health, environmental policy, and agricultural press and events, stifling democratic farmer representation.

In Italy, Lighthouse Reports and one of the two most prominent Italian weeklies L’Espresso revealed a web of links between the leaders of the major Italian farmer lobby Coldiretti, agribusiness and politicians. While Coldiretti is meant to advocate for the interests of farmers, their interests are becoming more in line with agribusiness than average farmers.

In Germany, Lighthouse Reports and the leading German daily newspaper Die Tageszeitung revealed how the dominant farmers’ association DBV broke promises made in the agricultural consultative commission — a dialogue process that is now being emulated at E.U.-level. This implies that farm lobbies may go back on their promises during the current E.U. consultative process on the issue of agriculture, which will make the process ineffective and would simply delay legislative action.

The cross-country team of journalists also discovered mafia-style bullying. They interviewed more than three dozen farmers, but most refused to speak with them on record. The journalists refer their findings to an earlier documentary about the leading French farmers union FNSEA that revealed that farmers are often afraid of speaking out against the main union because they fear they won’t be able to buy land, won’t get a loan from a bank or a cooperative, or will have difficulties with retirement payments. Activists were afraid of eavesdropping. Others spoke about the intimidation of local residents that oppose the construction of new farms.

Big Ag clearly has a heavyweight political influence — in Brussels and across the E.U. capitals. In addition to having the power to influence voters through media control and influence politicians through important public and private bodies, the leaders of the Big Ag lobbies have the power to convene protestors and politicians, as well as give media exposure to the politicians speaking at the protests.

What’s more, Politico and the key European investigative platform DeSmog have also revealed many links between the farmer lobbies and far-right groups. They have found that far-right politicians were invited to speak at farmer protests and far-right groups organized protests. Not surprisingly, far-right leaders from across the E.U. are spreading misinformation related to food or farming to gain votes through social media.

Far-right parties from all over Europe have picked up the farm lobbies’ rhetoric as a key issue in their election campaigns. As the far-right has significantly increased its political power, and recently was a big winner in the European Parliament elections, this is threatening other political parties all across the E.U. Thus, farm lobbies have gained big heavyweight negotiating power with politicians from all across the political spectrum.

The recent investigations are worrying, though unfortunately not surprising. Over the course of the past year, politicians from all across Europe have catered to industrial farming interests rather than the average farmer. The ties of farm lobbies to the far-right, their media control, and the success of social media misinformation campaigns explain why politicians are catering to Big Ag demands, rather than actually helping farmers.

How Big Ag Managed To Thwart Legislative Progress In The E.U.

Animals are recognized as sentient beings in the E.U. treaties, yet any legal protection for them is minimal and outdated. The general law for animal welfare dates back to 1998 and species-specific laws were last updated fifteen years ago. To align E.U. law with the latest science and citizens’ expectations for more sustainable food systems, the European Commission embarked on a revision of the animal welfare legislation in 2020, as part of the Farm to Fork Strategy. Four comprehensive proposals were due in 2023. Yet, lobbying pressure from vested interests and their political allies has derailed the process.

One of the key commitments related to animal welfare that the European Commission made was to prohibit caged farming following the successful European Citizens’ Initiative ‘End the Cage Age.’ In the E.U., every year approximately 300 million animals are locked in cages. The European Commission had committed to adopt a legislative proposal by the end of 2023, to prohibit the use of cages for all farmed animals, including cages for laying hens, pullets, layer and broiler breeders, rabbits, quail, geese, and ducks, as well as farrowing crates and sow stalls for sows, and individual calf pens.

Nonetheless, through Freedom of Information requests and interviews with civil servants, a joint investigation between The Guardian and Lighthouse Reports revealed that the promised ban on caged farming was derailed after a ferocious pushback from powerful farming lobbies. The E.U.’s food safety watchdog had confirmed that a ban on caged farming was necessary from a scientific perspective, yet industry groups went so far as to level accusations of bias against the body during their meetings with E.U. decision-makers, and put aggressive pressure on the European Commission through privileged channels.

As the commitment to propose a ban of caged farming by 2023 is legally binding, together with the other organizers of the ‘End the Cage Age’ European Citizens’ Initiative, I have taken the European Commission to Court. The Court of Justice of the European Union will now have to decide whether the decision of the E.U.’s executive to shelve the cages ban was legal.

According to a leaked document, verified by Faunalytics, E.U. civil servants planned for the revision of the animal welfare legislation to go far beyond banning the use of cages in animal farming. The draft legislative measures included a wide range of improvements for farmed animals, including:

• Reducing stocking densities on farms, including for broilers;
• Preventing cruel breeding practices, such as extreme growth-rates of chickens preventing them from standing up due to their excessive weight;
• A prohibition of mutilation practices such as beak trimming of birds and tail docking of pigs, dehorning dairy cows, and disbudding calves without anesthesia or analgesia;
• A prohibition to import animal products that do not meet the E.U.’s production standards;
• Stricter conditions for transporting live animals;
• A prohibition of cruel slaughter methods, including the killing of fish while conscious and the mass-killing of male chicks;
• A new voluntary animal welfare labeling.

The only measures to survive from the planned package were some minor improvements to the rules on animal transport, as well as new requirements for cats and dogs. These, however, are a tiny fraction of what the E.U. was expected to do for animals according to the Commission’s own announcements.

Sadly, in addition to the shelved animal welfare legislation, the E.U. went back on environmental ambitions to regulate agricultural emissions to tackle climate, biodiversity, and other environmental problems. Back in 2019, when Ursula von der Leyen embarked on her role as the European Commission’s President, she hailed the European Green Deal as “Europe’s man on the moon moment.” It was the Commission’s flagship initiative, envisioning a climate-neutral continent by 2050. As part of the Green Deal, the Commission adopted a food strategy named the Farm to Fork Strategy, which aimed to make E.U. food systems healthy and environmentally-friendly.

However, by 2024 we witnessed a rollback of green E.U. policies for the agrifood sector and a clear abandonment of many goals and targets. Under the pressure of the farming industry and the President’s political family, the European People’s Party, President von der Leyen rolled back on environmental rules related to E.U. farm subsidies, shelved plans for sustainable food production, abandoned targets to reduce pesticide use and dropped plans to ensure a resilient water supply. Not surprisingly, a recent report by InfluenceMap revealed that the meat and dairy industry used the corporate playbook to derail progress in these areas.

This year, we also witnessed a rollback of national policies related to agriculture — from German plans to cut diesel subsidies to a French plan for a diesel tax increase. Instead of regulating the industry, politicians have bowed down to the farm lobby and even provided additional funds for the sector: Farmers received millions in euros in aid – be it from the E.U. or the national level. At the same time, the Big Ag could claim victory in their attempt to discredit alternatives to animal products. Austria, France, and Italy are spearheading bans of cell meat and the far-right picked up false narratives about the E.U. making consumers eat insects. 

It is worth noting that a most recent joint investigation by Greenpeace’s Unearthed and the Dutch media Follow the Money has found that the backlash against cultured meat is driven by an influential lobbying campaign fronted by a former beef industry executive and funded by vested interests.

Reclaiming Our Democracies

European citizens care deeply about animal welfare. Eight out of ten Europeans believe that the welfare of farmed animals should be better protected than it is now (84%), as evident from the latest E.U. official public opinion poll on the issue. The vast majority agree that animals should not be kept in individual cages (89%).

Nearly every respondent also confirmed that animals should have enough space to move around, lie down and stand up (94%), cutting off animal body parts like tails and beaks should be prohibited (89%), transport journeys should be limited (83%) and welfare in slaughterhouses should be improved (88%).

European politicians have been disregarding the wishes of the vast majority of citizens, and are clearly designing farming policies to the detriment of the vast majority of farmers, as small farmers don’t have their voices heard. Citizens demand change and the realities of the 21^st century demand an overhaul of the way we produce our food. In a food system like the E.U.’s, which is deeply entrenched with subsidies and public sector interference, we don’t have another choice but to push back on Big Ag’s dirty lobbying tactics and reclaim our democracies.

Following the results of the recent European Parliament elections, we anticipate a difficult road ahead. The far-right is stronger and these groups have traditionally voted against measures aimed to reduce the suffering of farmed animals. In addition, there are many uncertainties about the backroom deals the main E.U. political parties will strike before reaching agreement and a balance of power. We have no option but to keep calling for E.U. policies and laws to align with citizens’ demands. E.U. politicians should take action to promote animal welfare and food transition and should be held accountable for not doing so. We will actively pursue the prioritization of the interests and concerns of citizens over those of the farming lobbies.