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This article is taken from the IEG Policy Platform dated
1/06/20.
US, Europe seek better protection for farm workers, World Bank
acts on locust swarms, glyphosate lawsuit rejected. Also, the US
FDA is called upon to lift restrictions on safety inspections, EU
Commission is challenged on Farm to Fork Strategy and drought has
cut yield expectations in Europe.
Dutch meat company Vion called on health authorities last week
to roll out wider COVID-19 testing of meat workers after having to
suspend slaughter operations at a plant close to the border with
Germany.
Vion said 600 workers would be quarantining at home for two
weeks - obliging it to move meat production to other meat plants in
the Netherlands.
Across the EU, lawmakers were calling for governments to step up
their actions to ensure the health and safety of seasonal workers
in Europe to salvage the harvests.
Members of the European Parliament's Employment and Social
Affairs Committee (EMPL) discussed how safe conditions for
cross-border workers could be ensured in the EU for those carrying
out vital agricultural labour. MEPs from all political groups
expressed deep concerns about recent reports on the precarious
conditions and lack of COVID-19 prevention measures for seasonal
workers across the bloc.
Similarly in the US, a coalition of 72 House members urged
congressional leaders to ensure USDA used funds from the Commodity
Credit Corporation (CCC) to help protect farmworkers from
COVID-19.
With lockdown orders lifting and state agencies bringing back
staff in the US, the FDA was called upon to green-light produce
safety inspections, especially as some commodities have such a
limited growing season.
The FDA abruptly postponed foreign inspections as the pandemic
unfolded in March, then extended the rollback to routine domestic
inspections in hopes of keeping the FDA and FDA-contracted state
staff safe from the disease. On May 11, FDA announced it was
working on a plan to resume routine facility inspections, although
no details were disclosed. The Association of Food and Drug
Officials (AFDO) urged the FDA to push the process on.
Glyphosate ruling
Also in the US, a federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of
a class action that alleged General Mills was deceiving consumers
by failing to disclose the potential presence of glyphosate in its
popular Cheerios cereals. The plaintiff could only show a
"hypothetical injury" from her claims, a three-judge panel of the
US Court of Appeals concluded.
In Europe, members of the European Parliament's Committee on
Agriculture (AGRI) have challenged the Commission on how its new
plan to shape sustainable agri-food chains will be implemented on
the ground without knowing what the next Common Agricultural Policy
(CAP) will look like.
The F2F strategy has proposed 27 measures to realise more
sustainable agri-food chains, including aspirational targets like a
50% reduction in the use and risk of chemical and hazardous
pesticides as well as bringing 25% of EU agricultural land under
organic farming.
Italian MEP Herbert Dorfmann, EPP's AGRI coordinator, said that
the Commission's measures make it look more like a "farm strategy"
than a "fork strategy", adding that the EU executive is putting too
much political pressure on the agricultural sector.
After, two months of unusually hot and dry weather across
Europe, yield forecasts for the 2020 harvest of nearly all EU crops
have been reduced. The average yield for wheat is expected to go
down by 4.7% from 2019 (to 5.5 tonnes/hectare) and by 5.4% for
barley (to 4.72 t/ha), while rapeseed would even fall 0.4% below
last year's disaster crop.
Some parts of Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia were
suffering severe crop loss after having to cope with a plague of
locusts. The World Bank has released funds to support households
affected by the swarms.
