Commissioner Wojciechowski and CEJA’s delegates discussed young farmers’ concerns and the recently published Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies. “It was a good opportunity to showcase the diversity of farmers and farming activities across Europe”, said CEJA President Jannes Maes. He also highlighted that: “CEJA counts on Commissioner Wojciechowski to stand behind all young farmers to overcome the challenges young farmers face and design the future of agricultural policy”.
CEJA’s delegates also approved the organisation’s position paper on the Farm to Fork Strategy. Europe’s young farmers who see in the Strategy the elaboration of a paradigm that will determine their entire journey in the sector, want to see a better acknowledgement of the sector’s diversity and efforts towards more sustainability. While they are committed to maximise their efficiency through a decreased level of inputs creating positive outputs both in production and in environmental performance, young farmers want to highlight the need for strong investment support to implement successfully the adequate technological tools and management choices. The pathway to success, in CEJA’s views, is to encourage each individual farmer to contribute in accordance to his/her own realities, potentials and ambitions.
“While we embrace the ambitions put forward by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, European young farmers believe the proposed Farm to Fork Strategy fails in its most crucial aspect which is to leave no-one behind, said CEJA President. He added that: “Social and economic sustainability cannot just be ‘nice words’; they are the precondition for any proposal to be successful or even acceptable”.
To know more about the potential trade-offs from the Farm to Fork strategy impacting young farmers, please read our position paper available here.
