Energy, farming and environmentalism

Europe’s prosperity rests on foundations that are easy to take for granted: abundant energy, secure food supplies, and the responsible use of its natural resources. The ideological pursuit of environmentalism has repeatedly undermined these foundations. Against policies which make energy and food scarcer, we must launch a defence of plentiful energy, productive industry and food security.

European environmental policy has become increasingly influenced by a philosophy of austerity and degrowth: the idea that consuming less energy, producing less, and restricting economic activity can themselves constitute environmental progress. This philosophy fits remarkably well with the EU bureaucracy’s preference for targets, plans, and managed outcomes. Instead of asking how Europe can produce abundant energy and food with fewer resources and lower environmental impacts, policy too often begins by asking how production and consumption can be constrained.

Energy demonstrates the problem most clearly. Modern European life is built upon enormous quantities of reliable energy. Homes, hospitals, transportation, agriculture, and industry all depend upon it. Yet EU energy policy has increasingly subordinated the basic objectives of abundance, affordability, and security of supply to environmental targets. When production fails to keep pace, the answer too often becomes reducing demand: use less energy, drive less, heat less, and simply consume less of everything.

The energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exposed the fragility of this model. Europe discovered that an energy transition built partly upon dependence on Russian gas had created serious vulnerabilities. Renewables can play an important role, but wind and solar are parts of an energy system rather than standalone solutions: grids, storage, backup generation, and secure supply chains all matter. Meanwhile, Germany’s retreat from nuclear power and decades of underinvestment in France demonstrated how political choices can weaken reliable low-carbon generation precisely when Europe needs abundant energy most.

Agriculture faces a similar contradiction. Food abundance is one of Europe’s greatest post-war achievements. European households once spent an enormous share of their incomes simply feeding themselves. Rising agricultural productivity changed that, making plentiful and affordable food normal. Yet decades of abundance encouraged policymakers to forget that food security depends upon farmers continuing to produce, make a living, and invest.

Environmental protection is essential to agriculture: farmers depend upon fertile soil, reliable water, and functioning ecosystems. The problem begins when environmental objectives become detached from food production, and reducing agricultural output becomes an objective in itself. Europe cannot impose increasingly costly production requirements on its farmers, accept declining domestic output, and simply assume that food will always arrive cheaply from elsewhere.

Nor does shifting production abroad necessarily protect the environment. Europe can reduce emissions on its own balance sheet while importing food, energy, and industrial products from less efficient producers elsewhere. The environmental footprint has then been displaced rather than eliminated, while Europe becomes more dependent upon global supply chains. A European environmental model that achieves its targets by making production more expensive at home and importing the consequences from abroad is neither sustainable nor an attractive example for the rest of the world.

Agricultural productive capacity matters. Fertiliser, agricultural inputs, and thus food cannot simply be assumed to remain available. Europe needs farmers willing to farm, investment in adaptation and irrigation where viable, resilient supply chains, and an energy system capable of reliably powering a modern continent. Environmental policy must work with these realities rather than against them.

FSI Europe rejects the politics of degrowth, energy austerity, and the false choice between prosperity and environmental protection. We will investigate how EU energy, agricultural, and environmental policies affect energy security, food production, land use, and Europe’s dependence on the outside world. We will make the case for a different environmentalism: abundant and affordable energy, productive European agriculture, technological innovation, and more efficient use of natural resources. Making Europeans poorer will leave them less able to afford environmental protection, while exporting production can simply export emissions and resource use. Europe should instead demonstrate that environmental progress can accompany abundance: creating a model that Europeans will support and that the rest of the world might actually want to follow.