Around the world,farmers are waking up to the realities of top-down overregulation, climate extremism and risinginput costs. Tractor barricades, piles of manureinfront of city buildings, and bales of hay ablaze across the streets ofEuropeshould be a wake-up call for lawmakersinthe United States.
As history has shown, from storming the Bastille to the beheading of Marie Antoinette, the French certainly have a penchant for protesting.In recent years these movements have continued, with the streets of France filling up during the yellow vestprotestsand now roads are blocked by frustratedfarmers driving diesel-powered tractors.
While France is theEuropean Union’s largest agricultural producer, the economic plight and anger ofEuropeanfarmers isn’t limited to France;they are protesting or planning suchinBelgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain.
Farmers use their tractors to block the highway on the border of Belgium and France, between Aubange and Mont-Saint-Martin, on Jan. 29, 2024. (Julien Warnand/Belga/AFP via Getty Images)
Farmers’ main beef stems from the EU’s nature restoration law, which sets legally binding “Green New Deal” style targets for member states to restore at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030. Thisincludes an obligation for 4% of EUfarmland to lie fallow or remain out of productive use.
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Taking prime agricultural land out of productive use notonly fliesinthe face of logic asEuropegrapples with rising food prices and competition from cheap food imports but discounts theincredible work the agricultureindustry does for our global environment.
Indeed,farmers and ranchers are the world’s original conservationists. They don’t need unelected, big-government bureaucrats telling them how to do their jobs.
VideoAs discontentment spreads acrossEurope, American lawmakers should heed the warning signs.Inmany cases, if the Biden administration continues to get its way, similarly disastrous policies will continue toinflict painonour famers and domestic food supply.
Since the first day of President Biden’s term, America’sfarmers, ranchers and producers have come under constant attack, through burdensome regulations, exacerbated by recordinflation, highinput costs, the politicization of crop protection tools, anti-energyinitiatives, supply chain disruptions and labor shortages.
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Within hours of taking the oath of office, Biden shut down the Keystone XL pipeline, issued a drilling moratoriumonfederal lands and waters, and similarlyinstituted Green New Deal-style regulations like the so-called “30×30″initiative that seeks to conserve at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.
VideoJust recently, the Biden administration paused liquified natural gas exports, adding even more uncertainty to this necessary market.
Agriculture relies heavilyonenergy production, and these disastrous anti-American energy policies directly impact thefarmers who feed and fuel our country.
It’s not just energy. America’sfarmers, ranchers and landowners have come under regulatory assaultonother fronts.
VideoThe Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule plunged rural communitiesinto ambiguity and would cut offfarmers’ access to their own land.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has similarly sought to limit pesticides needed to protect crops from damaging pests and diseases,increase yields while using fewerinputs, and implement critical conservation practices.
Recent proposals related to crop protection tools could force producers to spendbillionsoncostly mitigation measures to use pesticides or even prevent some producers from using these tools altogether.
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VideoThe Biden administration also plans to tighten meat and poultry products effluent guidelines and national air quality standards, both of which are nearly impossible to comply with, likely to put U.S.industry out of production and pushing even more jobs overseas.
Asfarmers acrossEuropetake to the streets to fight radical environmental policies,inflation and overregulation, America sitsina similarly precarious position. Since the lastfarmbillwas passedin2018, our hardworking producers have faced similar challenges much like thoseinFrance, Germany and other EU countries.
Make no mistake, the impact of these policies aren’t just hitting producers, they’re hitting the wallets of every American consumer. An Axios survey from December 2023 found nearly 72% of Americans said they thinkinflation was the worst at the grocery store, and nearly 60% feel “angry” about prices and “anxious” whenever they shop for groceries because of the impact it hasontheir budget.
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In2020, the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service released a brief – titled, “Economic and Food Security Impacts of AgriculturalInput Reduction Under theEuropean Union Green Deal’sFarmto Fork and Biodiversity Strategies” – which found that with global adoption of the EU’sFarmto Fork Strategy, worldwide food prices wouldincrease 89% by 2030.
LawmakersinAmerica have a choice: continue down this ruinous path of demonizing the agricultureindustry – the very people who feed, fuel and clothe our nation – or embrace them as the unsung heroes to our country they truly are. After all, food security is national security. It’s well past time Congress reflects that.
