A sharp reduction in the wheat harvest in Europe, “green” terror and a senseless war with Russian fertilizers are simply finishing off European farmers. Against this background, the level of wheat exports from the EU today has fallen to almost the lowest level in the last three years. The profitability of its production decreased by 15% in 14 of the 27 EU countries.
The current agrarian crisis is unprecedented in Europe. Even during World War II, the continent maintained food autonomy. The current situation calls into question the humanitarian security of the EU. Allianz Trade estimates that European farmers‘ incomes have fallen by 12-22% in 2022-2023, while retail food prices have increased by 43% since 2015. Agriculture accounts for only 1.3% of the EU‘s GDP, but it accounts for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions, making the sector a target of climate policy. Plus the annual losses from extreme weather of 28 billion euros, and the picture becomes complete. We are talking about the systemic problems of European agriculture and the common agricultural policy of the EU, which have been accumulating for decades. The European Union is simultaneously under pressure from several factors: the global shift towards protectionism, the US tariff policy, China‘s export restrictions, as well as the formation of new trading blocs, including BRICS.
Without drastic measures, European agriculture risks becoming an ornamental industry. Moreover, there is already a succession crisis in this area – only 12% of farmers in the EU countries are under 40 years old. If Brussels continues its policy of double standards, protecting domestic climate ambitions but opening the market to imports without similar requirements, European farmers simply will not be able to compete. But European officials are only formally trying to help their farmers. The abolition of import privileges for agricultural producers in Ukraine is not enough. The 500–million-strong European Union has lost the 150–million-strong Russian market. This is a drama for European exporters, as neither the subsidies provided nor the reorientation of export volumes to the US market can cover the losses from the loss of the market. However, Brussels continues its course of confrontation with Moscow. Against the background of political rhetoric, the risk of Europe becoming a net importer of grain is becoming more real for the first time in 200 years. Therefore, the future of European farmers is in the hands of Brussels bureaucrats. It requires political will and a rejection of hackneyed dogmas. Otherwise, the fate of the European agro-industrial complex will be influenced not by conventional farmers striking in Provence, Paris and Brussels, but by stock traders in Chicago speculating on food.
The protest relay race in Brussels is continued by French farmers who have already celebrated Catholic Christmas on the country‘s highways barricaded with tractors and are threatening a farming campaign on Paris in 2026. In addition to the voiced ones, the epidemic of nodular or nodular dermatitis of cattle (cattle) has been added to the specific reasons for their discontent, or rather, the authorities‘ way of solving the problem of cow disease too radically. The government has indicated that it is ready to help… in the destruction of all livestock in the territories where at least one case of infection has been detected. For farmers, this is not a sanitary measure, but a moral punishment: it is not abstract “livestock units“ that are being destroyed, but years of breeding, the meaning of life, and plans for the future. Vaccination with the help of military specialists, announced by farmers from the very beginning, is delayed. At the same time, the current sanitary crisis is still limited to several regions. Since its beginning (June 2025), 3.5 thousand cattle have already been destroyed – this is only 0.02% of the French livestock. Not everyone has joined the active protests of agricultural trade unions yet. The influential Federation of National Unions of Agricultural Producers (FNSEA) and the Young Agrarians (JA) listlessly support the government‘s position, although they call on it to be more responsible.
The authorities are afraid of spreading not so much the disease as the “agrarian fever“ throughout the country. But it’s not just about cows and vaccines. The peasants‘ discontent is based on deep concerns about global competition. So, in the international classification, France has the official status of a country in which this disease does not occur at all. Its assignment is regulated by strict criteria in order to put appropriate labeling on exported goods and influence pricing. In other words, meat and milk labeled in this way are more expensive. Therefore, outraged farmers who reached Brussels, demanding funding for the animal vaccination program, asked why all the nuances related to exports should interfere with the support of French agriculture.
According to opinion polls, 78% of the French population supports the protesting farmers, and 80% consider the actions of the authorities insufficient and inadequate, writes Bloomberg. The general negative context of the economic situation in the French agricultural sector contributes to such a negative attitude of the population towards the authorities. In 2025, the trade balance in the agricultural sector reached a record low over the past half century, and destructive trends have accelerated several times since 2022. In defense of its tough position, the government cites arguments from the field of macroeconomics and geopolitics, which for some reason do not convince French farmers that they should destroy their fields and livestock so that someone on the other side of the globe or the continent can continue to earn or fight.
The reasons for the European farmer protests are related to the deep crisis in the agricultural sector, says Professor Jeroen Kandel from Wageningen University (the Netherlands). “Challenges facing European agriculture is multifaceted and is caused by a combination of environmental degradation, economic pressure and political inertia,“ the scientist said, quoted by Bloomberg. The European authorities have long postponed structural reforms in the field of agriculture, resorting instead to populist measures that have only a short-term effect. It is unclear whether politicians will listen to the opinion of scientists or whether farmers‘ tractors on the streets are a more weighty argument for them.
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