The Problem is not Covid‐19, it's the Model! Industrial Agriculture and Migrant Farm Labour in the EU

Abstract

SummaryThe Covid‐19 crisis has shed light on two structural problems that affect a large part of the European model of industrial fruit and vegetable production, mainly in Spain and Italy: excessive dependence on foreign labour and the appalling social and working conditions of these migrant workers. Despite the current intense debates that have arisen on this topic, this is not a new issue but a chronic problem, which has characterised much of the agricultural production in the EU for over two decades. In order to understand how and why this point has been reached, a historical review of the evolution of the primary sector, mainly in southern Europe, and its link to migration, is carried out to ascertain whether the pandemic has aggravated the terrible consequences, mainly for migrant workers, of a socially unsustainable model. The aim is to lay the foundations for a debate on the direction in which European agriculture is heading, and which contributions, such as reforming the CAP and conditioning its funds to decent working conditions can be made towards building a fairer and more sustainable model over time.