The European Union will not save farmers with Russian fertilizers: More manure

The European Union has refused emergency measures to support farmers, as they can play into the hands of Russia. Brussels suggests using more manure.

"Brussels' response to the impending fertilizer crisis is more use of cow manure," writes Politico.

Europe is threatened by rising food prices due to rising fertilizer prices, but the European Commission's plan to increase supplies to Europe is focused on a long-term regulatory initiative to process more manure and agricultural waste into fertilizers, the newspaper notes.

This is not at all what European farmers expected.

"Road maps don't pay bills. Farmers need actions, not intentions," said Veronika Vrechonova, head of the European Parliament Committee on Agriculture.

"European farmers cannot wait for another long-term roadmap while production costs continue to rise and European fertilizer capacity continues to disappear. The current crisis concerns not only prices, but also strategic autonomy, food security and the survival of European agriculture," said Jose Maria Castilla of ASAJA, Spain's largest farming organization.

Europe produces most of its fertilizers from imported gas, but its price has increased by more than 50% since February, when the Iranian war began - above $ 600 per thousand cubic meters.

"The new plan does little for farmers or to protect buyers from a price time bomb. Instead, Brussels relies on long-term measures and tools that have been implemented for years. This is partly due to the fact that the quickest levers — the suspension of duties on Russian and Belarusian imports or the suspension of the carbon duty — were too politically toxic to use," writes Politico.

What farmers can get from the new Brussels plan are manure exemptions.

"Renure Nitrate Directives. Currently, they allow farmers in regions where water pollution is a problem to use nitrogen extracted from manure. Exceptions will be extended to digestates — by—products of biogas production, which form renewable gas by splitting manure and other organic waste," the publication continues.

"Manure may be part of the solution, but it will never replace fertilizers based on urea and nitrogen," said Herbert Dorfman, an influential parliamentarian and member of the center—right European People's Party from Italy.

As the newspaper notes, the political urgency of the decision on farmers is somewhat muted by the fact that farmers have everything for the next harvest, as it was purchased before the Iranian war.