[pousada]

What hurts EU farmers the most are the huge supermarket chains which control prices. The rules&regulations thing is an often cited meme but the price war is much more impactful.

In fact we could produce for example in Germany milk in a sustainable and very environmentally friendly way if it would just cost a couple cents more, like 10 cents or even less. But consumers will basically riot if you raise the prices there so the supermarket chains don’t do it and instead put more pressure on the farmers to produce cheaply.

If you read the MERCOSUR agreement then you’ll see there are a ton of protections included against the thing you are afraid of.

[afpx]

Don’t you guys have farmer’s markets? I buy a lot of my stuff direct from the farmer.

[pousada]

We do have those markets but they are much more expensive (for exactly that reason that they aren’t subject to the price gauge as the supermarkets are). They are essentially for some (rich) hippies/yuppies only.

I can’t speak for other EU countries but in Germany people will buy the cheapest food almost always. Quality or farmer welfare is a minor concern for the majority.

[wiether]

Of course we do

But most people don't want to make the effort to go there instead of buying everything at the supermarket

Even though they still say that they want our farmers to have decent working conditions and incomes

But even the farmers will eat cheap imported lentils over local ones