Debate contributions by Asger CHRISTENSEN

Madam President! EU agricultural policy needs to be simplified – not in spreadsheets, but in reality. Agriculture suffers from data tyranny. The dates control when we should sow and when we should be done harvesting. The weather does not conform to spreadsheets, and Mother Earth does not conform to the calendar. Even so, the farmer is severely punished if the date is exceeded. It's desk farming. It does not benefit the climate, food production or our competitiveness. We need to get our senses back. We need to remove the many burdens. We need to put an end to paperwork. Our hands must produce and not control. Instead of processes and dates, we need to measure results and impact. Our agricultural policy must ensure food security. Our agricultural policy must be de-bureaucratised. Our farmers must be freed from their desks and spend their time in the stables and on the field.

Mr President! Thank you for the word. Simplification of agricultural policy is very, very important. That's why I put on the rubber boots today, Hansen, and they're washed. Less bureaucracy so that time can be spent in the stable and in the field. It makes no sense for us to simplify the rules with one hand and create a new bureaucratic monster with the other. The proposal for compulsory contracts in the dairy sector is a slap in the face for our shareholders and cooperatives. This is legislation for the sake of legislation, not common sense. I have been a farmer for over forty years and we have a strong cooperative model where farmers own the dairies together and share risk and gain. This ensures full transparency. We should support the models that have worked for over 150 years and not destroy them. Therefore, cooperatives should be exempted from this contact model. It will destroy the farmers.

Madam President! We must ensure that the EU's agricultural policy is also common in the future. The CAP must remain as EU funding. It creates a level playing field and it protects the internal market and prevents renationalisation. We must ensure a realistic green transition where climate and environment go hand in hand with food production and competitiveness. And then we need to make sure that new technology becomes usable for all farmers. Budget remains necessary especially for young and active farmers. We must move towards more result-oriented payments as a complement, and we must remember that food supply is a security policy. Europe needs stable food and supply chains, not least in this troubled world we have right now. Therefore, we need to simplify the rules so that it becomes easier to be a farmer. Equally important is ensuring strong generational renewal, because without young people there is no future for agriculture, secure access to land and capital, and future-proof. We need to remember who we work for. The farmer with the boots on, the consumer with the shopping cart and future generations, who must have a robust Europe to be in.

Madam President! Food prices are high. Too high. Rules, control systems and documentation for the sake of documentation create costs. The farmer, the transporters and the merchant spend hours and days on paperwork and reporting. It does not make the food safer or the production greener. Every time we put a new layer of regulation on, we put a layer of cost on the price. It's completely foolish, and it only makes it more expensive to produce, more expensive to transport, more expensive to sell. And guess who's paying? The consumer does. We cannot afford a food system where a large part of the money goes to keep the paper piles alive. We must, of course, have responsible standards. Yes, we will. We want to make it easier to be a farmer. We want to make it easier to be a producer. We want to make it easier to be a merchant. When we simplify the rules, we unnecessarily cut red tape and then costs fall throughout the supply chain. This leads to lower prices. Not in ten years, but tomorrow. For every penny we save on unnecessary bureaucracy, we release resources. Proper settlement to those who produce, and food on the table at a price people can pay. That's common sense. This is necessary and urgent.

Mr President! Agriculture is one of Europe's most important sectors. Farmers make sure we have food on the table every day. Food security is a security policy. That is why I very much welcome the Commission's proposal to focus on simplifying rules and simplifying their vision. The farmer needs less time at the desk and more time in the field and in the stable. It is crucial that we de-bureaucratise in order to be competitive, but I have my concerns. The Commission's proposal for a common market organisation, where mandatory contracts are concluded, creates unnecessary administration and disrupts well-functioning markets such as the Danish ones. I hope that the Commission will support exports to third countries. Exports create jobs, investment and a future for European farmers. In times of uncertainty, it is important that we safeguard agriculture to ensure food security.

Mr President! As a farmer there, I know that working on agriculture is not just a profession. It's a way of life. We live in the countryside. We live with the country. We live off the land. It can be hard, physical and demanding work, so it often takes place under pressure and isolation from the outside world. Farmers have natural challenges. We are really dependent on the weather, and it is frustrating if it dries away or it rains away. But after all the weather, we will never be the master over. At the same time, we live out there, where there is a little longer between the houses, and where there is a little longer for the help of good and evil. But farmers are also living under extreme physical and psychological pressure with all the regulation and control that we currently have. And we're going to change that. We must listen to a lot from the outside world that constantly exhausts them. We can't be familiar with that. European farmers produce world-class food, and that is also a security policy aspect. We owe them a huge thank you for their work. We must make life easier for farmers through de-bureaucratisation.

Mr President! On my farm in Denmark, we have managed to reduce our climate impact by 15 percent over the last four years, while at the same time producing world-class milk. Agriculture and the green transition are not each other's opposites, they are each other's prerequisites. Money in the box, of course, freedom of technology, debureaucratization, competitiveness, that is absolutely crucial. In order for us to achieve our climate goals, massive investments are also needed. This money can come from many places. Greater budget or perhaps a European emissions trading system for CO2. But the money in the box is not alone. We must have freedom of technology, freedom to choose the technology that best suits our farms and our business models. The world needs more animal proteins. We have to meet that demand. But we need to have the right incentives. We need to take both the climate and the economy with us. One thing is for sure, it will never be out of fashion to eat.

Mr President! We are to be masters of our own house. It is crucial that we ensure future food security in Europe. If we don't have enough food for our people, then everything else really doesn't matter. But of course we need to produce greener and more sustainable. Europe already has the greenest agriculture in the world, but of course we can be even better. We need to produce more for less in the future. This means that we need to use all the tools we have in the toolbox when it comes to technology and innovation opportunities. It is plant breeding, it is precision farming, it is biodiversity, it is biopesticides and it is carbon farming. Yes, of course we have to use all that, but it has to work out in reality, out at the farmers, out at the farmers, and it requires that we get up to speed to get the new technologies approved. We are lacking that here in Europe.