“If Poland is unable to influence EU policy, it does not matter who governs Poland – this is my demand and expectation also from the current team – we need to implement the national agricultural policy to a greater extent, our own, internal one, which will be a correction and complement, sometimes putting a stop to the stupidity coming from the European Union” – Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski, former Minister of Agriculture, says in an interview for Schuman’s Optics Magazine.
In the opinion of Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski, the situation in Polish agriculture is difficult, which is largely related to the lack of hope. “It seems to me that the situation of Polish agriculture, and even more broadly – of European agriculture, is really starting to look very bleak. Many farmers are in a bad economic situation: their farms are in debt, they have problems with selling their products and obtaining a satisfactory price. This is strange, especially in the situation of skyrocketing food prices that consumers have to pay for – this has no impact on the prices paid to farmers. Many farmers have no successors, in fact they are the last generation of people engaged in agriculture” – he enumerates, pointing out that “this is the great drama of European agriculture”. “Unfortunately, farmers cannot cope with this situation on their own” – he concludes.
The former head of the Ministry of Agriculture emphasizes that “everything is related to the illogical policy pursued by the elites of the European Union, which is harmful both to European agriculture and to European consumers”. He does not hide the fact that “agriculture is on the verge of collapse, on the edge of an abyss”.
In his opinion, EU policy is “logical not from the point of view of consumers and farmers, but from the point of view of protecting the interests of large international corporations”.
Referring to the establishment of the European Council for Agriculture and Food, whose task is to implement the solutions that were developed during the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of Agriculture, Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski says: “The word ‘dialogue’ is associated with conversation, presenting one’s arguments, drawing conclusions, sometimes looking for compromises. What the European Commission described as the Strategic Dialogue actually did not contain any of the elements I am talking about. A group of approximately 30 people taken from nowhere. Suffice it to say that the head of this group was a German historian specializing in medieval history. What does this man know about modern agriculture? What does he know about food security? Not much, I guess”.
“The results of this ‘dialogue’ presented to Mrs. von der Leyen generally come down to the fact that there are no conclusions, that it is necessary to consider and verify the EU’s agricultural policy, and consider what to do so that Europe does not become dependent on external food from other regions of the world – this is very dangerous for everyday supplies. On the contrary – that we need to go faster, deeper and further into what the EU defined some time ago, which made European farmers very nervous and made us look at security with great concern. The aim is to accelerate the implementation of the green deal, accelerate the reduction of productivity in agriculture by eliminating animal breeding, by assuming that people should not eat meat or use animals at all, and accelerate the separation from agriculture of further areas that have been laboriously developed by people for centuries.” – he reminds.
The former Minister of Agriculture emphasizes that talking about anthropogenic causes of climate change is an abuse, because there are no scientific studies that would confirm such a thesis. He points out that “people are told that the way of life they have become accustomed to and which ensures prosperity needs to be changed, because people do not want more cars, the houses they live in are comfortable for them, so it must be said that these houses – not good, cars – not good, travel – not good, clothes – not good, and food production is also not suitable to force people to buy completely new household products or those that affect our lives”. “That’s why the idea of human influence on climate change was invented, which is not documented in any way” – he explains.
Ardanowski points out that the entire operation is aimed at taking over the food sector by large corporations. “Whoever masters food production, processing, distribution and trade will de facto have incredible power, greater than states and governments in these countries, because these are the goods without which man cannot live”. “Those who have food, energy and water will be the de facto rulers of the world” – he concludes.
“It strangely happens that the greatest advocate of opening the European market to food from around the world is Germany” – he notes, pointing to the game regarding the agreement with the MERCOSUR countries and the Germans’ hopes for selling their industrial products in South American countries. “Germany hopes that sales to these areas will save the German industry, but these countries, the only thing they can pay for, is food” – he says. “One more fact adds spice – Germany will be the distributor of this food and Germany will decide which European countries could use this food and at what price. But first, European agriculture must be destroyed” – he adds.
“Some kind of operation is taking place on the living organism of European society in order to completely change it. To me, it reminds me very much of the communist ideology of Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin later, which said that the ideas propagated by the communists, now repeated by Draghi, by other new theoreticians of neo-Marxism: ‘the ideas are right, but the nation has not matured, so the nation will be changed’. And I think that’s what’s happening in Europe at the moment, we just need to eliminate those who do they do not share the stupidity carried out in various fields, in different areas” – he does not hide his fears.
“If this insane policy of the European Union, tailored to the needs of Germany, is continued, agriculture in Europe will collapse and only then will truly huge problems begin” – Ardanowski predicts.
When asked what awaits Polish agriculture in 2025, Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski replies: “It is a difficult question, because we are part of the European market, the global market. It is not that we can, although in my opinion we should try, but we can completely program our own, internal, national politics. However, we are in the mode of the common agricultural policy and, unfortunately, some of this stupidity from Brussels will also exert some influence and pressure on us. We must certainly try to stop the stupidity in Brussels. Poland may have a unique opportunity. I am not entirely convinced that Prime Minister Tusk’s government will want to take advantage of this opportunity. In just a few days, Poland will take over the presidency of the European Union. We have an obligation to present our point of view and our proposals for solutions problems that we have largely talked about here”. “Many agricultural communities in Europe hope that Poland will raise a readable, clear voice against this European stupidity, these neo-Bolshevik mechanisms that are imposed in the cultural and moral sense, but will also save its economy, which is losing contact with reality” -he enumerates. “We have this tool in the form of the presidency, where we should present our expectations. Even if we fail to convince a significant group of countries to accept our idea, it must be written down firmly in EU documents. Maybe it will be the voice of reason” – he emphasizes. “However, being only an assistant to the powerful in Europe and using our presidency to perform only some technical function is a waste of an opportunity that appears in the current EU structure every 13.5 years. Poland can do a lot here” – he argues. In his opinion, if Poland is unable to influence EU policy, then “no matter who governs Poland – this is my demand and expectation also from the current team – we need to implement the national agricultural policy, our own, internal policy, to a greater extent, which will be a correction, a supplement, and sometimes a barrier to the stupidity coming from the European Union”.
Anna Wiejak
Institute of Schuman’s Thought