ECVC Conference of Farmers and Researchers: Day One Highlights Market Regulation, Access to Land, Fair Prices, and Generational Renewal
The International Conference of Researchers and Farmers, hosted by the European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) in Brussels this week, has once again put the spotlight on market regulations that the EU can implement to ensure a meaningful and successful transition to agroecological farming in the region.
The European Union Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, Christophe Hansen, who spoke during the opening plenary, outlined how the EU is approaching these challenges.
“Farmers need sustainable living conditions and wages. Agriculture varies from one region to another, so we must consider regional specificities and different paths. We need to work on fair prices. The reform of the Common Market Organization aims to encourage farmers to organize themselves into producer organizations, giving them greater negotiating power,” he stated.
He also indicated that the EU will present a generational renewal strategy to attract more young people into farming while acknowledging the massive challenges young farmers in Europe face in accessing land—especially young women. Promising to address issues related to access to credit and land, the Commissioner announced plans to relaunch a land observatory to study land ownership and concentration issues in Europe. The next scheduled reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2028, he added, would be an opportunity to address these pressing concerns affecting smallholder farmers.
Paola Laini, a young farmer from Italy and a key figure in ECVC and La Via Campesina’s political committees, emphasized that market regulation must go hand in hand with the reforms smallholder farmers seek in the CAP.
“Market regulation has always been part of the CAP and is interconnected with its objectives. CAP was created to uplift farmers’ wages after the war and protect their income from market deregulation. However, since 1992, changes in CAP’s functioning have worsened economic conditions for small-scale farmers. Incomes are shrinking significantly in some EU regions. CAP continues to support an export-based economic model and increasingly incorporates digital farming rhetoric, both of which negatively impact small-scale food producers. If implemented in its current form, digitalization could severely undermine the autonomy of small-scale food producers, who are already marginalized by an export-centric production model,” she said.
Laini reiterated ECVC’s longstanding demand to decouple subsidies from the size of land owned by farmers.
“ECVC has always advocated for the fair redistribution of subsidies, shifting away from hectare-based allocations and the global market. We believe market regulation should be the primary focus of the CAP. It should ensure farmers receive decent wages, above minimum levels, and have social security. Intervention prices for essential agricultural products, such as wheat, butter, skimmed milk powder, and meat, remain too low. Minimum purchase prices should be fixed based on input costs,” she added.
The conference also hosted peasant union leaders from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Ibrahim Sidibe from Mali, a member of La Via Campesina’s international coordinating committee, discussed how the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy effectively enables the dumping of cheap produce in Africa, disrupting local food chains and production systems.
“The massive subsidies that the US and EU provide to agro-industrial businesses create an uneven playing field for African peasant farmers. CAP facilitates a system where small-scale farmers on both continents suffer. The Economic Partnership Agreements our countries have signed with the EU have allowed for the dumping of cheap produce, derailing our efforts to build food sovereignty. Our local producers cannot compete with agribusiness giants, and CAP, in its current form, enables this situation,” Sidibe explained.
Marc Edelman, Professor at the City University of New York and who has extensively studied the evolution of the transnational peasant movement La Via Campesina, introduced a panel on “Farm and Food Prices.”
“Price-over-cost is the hope of farmers worldwide, but achieving it remains difficult. Many factors contribute to this challenge, including market imperfections such as monopolies, oligopolies, intermediation, insufficient market intelligence, overproduction, trade dumping, and the absence of supply management. If small and medium-sized producers are to benefit from the market economy rather than be victimized by it, we must discuss broader economic democratization alongside institutionalized efforts to set prices and provide subsidies,” Edelman stated.
He also elaborated on what economic democratization could entail.
“Alternative forms of ownership, such as cooperatives and worker-owned enterprises, could enable small producers to retain more of the wealth they generate. Gaining greater control over supply chains and securing a larger share of the total value-added between farm gate and dinner plate is another crucial step. Additionally, mechanisms like agricultural conservation easements could help decommodify land and other resources by preserving them for farming and conservation while prohibiting urbanization. However, achieving these goals is particularly challenging in the face of rising far-right governments, corporate interests, and oligarchic power structures,” he noted.
Andoni Garcia from Spain, a member of ECVC’s Coordinating Committee, explained how the demand for fair prices remains at odds with an export-import-heavy agro-industrial model.
“If markets continue to be deregulated, there will be no fair prices. The effects of deregulation are clear: major profits go to intermediaries and supply chain operators, while farmers receive low prices, and consumers face high costs,” he said.
Garcia highlighted Spain’s Food Supply Chain Law as an example of market regulation that benefits small-scale farmers.
“The Spanish law, introduced in 2013, mandated compulsory contracting, increasing transparency. The 2021 reform required contracts to be registered, preventing arbitrary modifications. A vital component of this law was the explicit recognition that prices at each stage of the supply chain must cover farmers’ production costs, including input expenses and wages for both farmers and workers. To ensure compliance, a European-level supply chain observatory generates price indices for each country. Furthermore, food information and control agencies have the authority to investigate and sanction non-compliance. So far, 3,510 sanctions amounting to 14 million euros have been issued,” he explained.
On the first day, participants also attended various workshops exploring themes such as fair prices, a rights-based approach to food access and food sovereignty, land access and market regulations, and food systems governance at local and global levels.
——————————————————————–
For more updates, visit ECVC website (www.eurovia.org) and social media: Twitter: @ECVC1