Brussels, 17/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - The phenomena of the concentration and grabbing of land occur not only in the developing countries; they also affect the European Union. This was demonstrated in a report by the European Coordination Via Campesina and Hands off the Land network published on Wednesday 17 April, at the “International Day of Peasant Struggle”.
This report, entitled “Land concentration and grabbing and people's struggles in Europe”, sheds light on a “scandal kept secret”, which is that just 3% of landowners control half of all cultivable land. “This massive concentration of land ownership and wealth is on a par with Brazil, Colombia and the Philippines”, European Coordination Via Campesina says in a press release.
The report shows major concentration of land in Spain, Germany, Italy, France and Austria. It sheds light on different forms of land grabbing in Hungary, Romania, Brazil, Serbia and Ukraine. Many of these large-scale land transactions are carried out in a secret, non-transparent way.
There is nothing new in this process of the growing concentration of land, but it has reached a huge scale in the countries of Eastern Europe. Via Campesina states that many European businesses, as well as new actors (Chinese companies and Middle Eastern hedge funds), are tied into increasingly global commodity chains. The organisation alleges that they are all looking to profit from increasing speculation on base agricultural products.
The report shows that subsidies paid under the common agriculture policy (CAP) are one of the main driving forces behind land concentration and land grabbing in Europe. EU direct aid “favours large landholdings, marginalises small farms and blocks entry by prospective farmers. In Spain, for example, in 2009, 75% of the subsidies were cornered by only 16% of the largest producers”, Via Campesina notes.
The other factors with a key role in land grabbing are the mining industry, urban extension and real estate interests.
In the view of Professor Jan Douwe van der Ploeg, of the University of Wageningen, this scale of the concentration and progressive grabbing of land is “unprecedented”. This worsens the current situation, in which many young people would like to stay in the countryside or get into farming, but are unable to remain on the land or access it. CAP subsidies are likely to reinforce obstacles to a more democratic access to the land and to young farmers starting up.
For example, the study presents the case of the community of Narbolia, Sardinia, which is mobilising against the use of prime agricultural land for massive solar greenhouse projects. Jeanne Verlinden of Via Campesina (ECVC) argues that the land should once again be considered a public good. “We must reduce the commodification of land and instead promote public management of this common resource (…). Priority should be given to the use of land for smallholder or peasant agriculture and food production, rather than handing over land to those private property commercial interests who seek land for speculation”. (LC/transl.fl)