00:00Hello and welcome to State of the Union.
00:07I'm Stefan Grobe in Brussels.
00:09The situation in Europe's southeastern neighborhood escalated dramatically over the past days.
00:15Following two weeks of Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon and the killing of the leader
00:19of Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, Tehran hit back.
00:24At least 180 missiles were fired at Tel Aviv and other Israeli locations, causing only
00:30minor damage.
00:32The reason is that most of the missiles were intercepted by Israel's air defense and U.S.
00:37and British forces operating in the region.
00:41International observers are now worried that future strikes could push the region closer
00:45to the brink.
00:47Even before the Iranian attack, the EU foreign policy chief called upon the party's concern
00:52to avoid further bloodshed.
00:54Hezbollah finally broke its and other projectiles into Israel's territory, since they took over,
01:01has to stop.
01:02The sovereignty of both Israel and Lebanon has to be guaranteed.
01:07And any further military intervention would dramatically aggravate the situation, and
01:14it has to be avoided.
01:17On the other side of the Mediterranean, Michel Barnier finally revealed his cards.
01:22The new French prime minister delivered his first political address to the National Assembly,
01:27announcing further belt-tightening and further taxes to reverse spiraling debts.
01:33He asked the wealthiest individuals and large companies to pay their fair share of taxes.
01:39The situation of our accounts demands a targeted effort, limited in time, a shared effort
01:48in a requirement of fiscal justice.
01:52This sharing of effort will lead us to demand a participation in collective re-establishment
01:58of large and very large companies that make significant profits.
02:04Despite Barnier's making the case of tax justice, many ordinary French fear that, in the end,
02:09they will have to foot the bill.
02:12French unions took to the street to put social demands at the heart of the political debate.
02:17Their message to Barnier was, we are watching you.
02:21One group always creating headaches for French governments are farmers, representing one
02:27of the most important economic sectors of the country.
02:31In his speech, Barnier promised further aid to farmers, but this situation requires a
02:35fundamental rethinking of the way agriculture is run in Europe, not only in France.
02:42Nobody has forgotten yet the massive farmers' protests across Europe at the beginning of the year.
02:48To go deeper on this issue, let's bring in Marco Contero, EU Agriculture Policy Director
02:52at Greenpeace.
02:54Welcome to the program.
02:55Thanks a lot for inviting me.
02:57So Greenpeace is out with a new report warning that there are less and less family-run farms
03:03and much larger so-called mega-farms.
03:06Why is that a bad thing?
03:08Well, the concern is that if we want to maintain rural areas filled with farms, with rural
03:15jobs, with specifically agricultural workers, and with rural communities that live around
03:22these farms, we need to maintain farmers on the ground.
03:26If we go towards a US model, so to say, with farms on average having 300 hectares per farm,
03:34we're going to empty rural areas.
03:37And this is something that will clearly have negative impacts in terms of social and economic
03:44also realities on the ground.
03:47Let's talk about this impact.
03:50What are the consequences of this development for the farming business, for consumers and
03:55for us as society?
03:56The problem is that we've been treating farmers as if they were one single entity.
04:03We clearly show with this report that there are a majority of rather small-scale family
04:10farms which are struggling economically, which in many cases are actually getting out of
04:17business.
04:18And there is a very minority of large-scale farms that have seen their profits increasing.
04:24So there is this gap is massively increasing, and we need to come out with policy solutions
04:33to stop this gap from widening and to start helping smaller family farm farmers and businesses
04:42that have to be helped because they are a victim of a system.
04:47And finally, what would you tell young people who consider a professional life in farming?
04:52Would you support them or rather discourage them?
04:55I want to be able to encourage them to get into farming because this will clearly provide
05:01a very good outcome.
05:02The problem we're now facing in the farming sector is that there is a major population,
05:07average age of farmers is below 57, and we absolutely need a generational renewal.
05:13For this generational renewal to happen, we need to provide young farmers entering the
05:18business with a lot of potential successes.
05:23Right now, for them, it's extremely difficult because land prices are very high.
05:28They have been driven up also by the Common Agricultural Policy, paying farmers on the
05:33basis of the land they own or they work.
05:36And we need to transition to the system where we reward farmers that do the right thing
05:42in order to bring them to a position where they can make a fair amount of money out of their business.
05:49All right, Marco Contiero, Greenpeace EU Agriculture Policy Director.
05:53Thanks for coming on the show today.
05:55Thanks a lot for inviting me again.
05:57Bye bye.
05:59Speaking of agriculture, these twin brothers from Britain have been trying to grow the
06:04world's largest pumpkin.
06:06This year, they think they might have cracked it.
06:10The brothers, who have four pumpkins growing for the challenge, say their produce is increasing
06:16by an average of 30 kilograms a day and take hundreds of liters of water.
06:21To grow them this big, it only takes one seed.
06:24But this pumpkin is being fed by 2,500 roots that the twin growers have been monitoring
06:30every day since April.
06:33They are expected to reach 1,500 kilograms each, the pumpkins, not the growers.
06:40If this gives you any ideas, the world record for the heaviest pumpkin to beat is 1,246.9
06:48kilos, set just last year, according to the Guinness Book.
06:54That's it.
06:55I'm Stefan Grobe.
06:57Take care and goodbye.
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