This edition of State of the Union focuses on the future of agriculture in the EU, the situation in the Middle East, the first plans of the new French government and a pumpkin ripe for the Guinness Book of Records.
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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.