And the quiet seizes the field

All too often, when Romanian agriculture is discussed, public discourse loses itself in a barren field, yielding almost no results for the lives of those who earn their “daily bread” from it. The sad reality, however, is that through bureaucratic fussiness and plenty of empty words, serious discussions about Romanian agriculture are often avoided, the topic being dismissed as supposedly boring. Yet, as discontent continues to smoulder among those who live off the land, the reality of the Romanian peasant can no longer be contemptuously swept under the rug of ignorance and, at last, demands clarification.

Burdened with a guilt that is not his own, the farmer finds himself forced to answer for a kind of collective disgust present in Romanian society. From poor nutrition and processed meats to air pollution caused by agricultural waste and the clumsy use of manure, the farmer becomes the scapegoat for the system’s failures. Naturally, the blame falls on those who live in fear of tomorrow, those who break their backs in fields that have become all too familiar, working tirelessly yet without being properly rewarded.

The Romanian, eternally powerless, bows submissively before decisions made far from his own fallow land. As the Common Agricultural Policy adopted by the European Parliament in 2021 introduces increasingly costly conditions, the burden on local producers becomes ever harder to bear. The obligation to plant “green crops” for biodiversity—such as clover and rye—on at least one field of the farm entails additional expenses for seeds and agricultural maintenance. With little concern for the world’s large industrial players, agricultural production costs are diluted within the commercial chain of economies of scale, while ordinary farmers are left to fend for themselves. Moreover, the Common Agricultural Policy, though seemingly designed for the collective good, grants financial aid in proportion to production volume, thereby neglecting needy farmers and favoring precisely those large-scale food industries that prosper at their expense.

According to common sense, damage should be proportional to compensation. Never in the contemporary world has it been considered acceptable, from a human standpoint, to inflict loss without offering compensation. And yet, our state relentlessly drains small farmers in order to support large food-industry factories and economies of scale, effectively plundering public funds. The recent entry into force of the European Union’s agreement with the Mercosur trade bloc has sparked widespread controversy among local producers across the continent. Massive protests, tractors taking to the streets, and various solidarity movements reveal the true revolt of European farmers against the injustice they have been subjected to.

In our country, however, seduced by the prospect of a so-called “free market,” we have complied with a gag in our mouths and an almost unhealthy enthusiasm for measures that condemn us to our own captivity. The hypocrisy becomes evident when foreign products are forced onto the Romanian market without having to meet the same food safety and environmental standards as local production, which remains subject to the Common Agricultural Policy. In the end, this false promise deprives the Romanian farmer of the fruits of his own labor and instead favors foreign production, cheaper precisely because of these disproportionate standards. This deliberate distortion of the free market leads to a harsh reality for our producers, forced to sacrifice their households in favor of interests that remain foreign to them. Thus, the Romanian peasant lives the reality of a new serfdom—yet this time, it no longer comes with the lords and vassals of old, but with an injustice dressed in the garments of modernity.

The sad truth is that the Romanian farmer is seen by the Romanian state as its own victim—both predator and prey—as reflected in the blunt statement of the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry: “In fact, the enemies of Romanian agriculture are the farmers themselves.” In truth, Romanian agriculture is not being emptied of life due to a lack of land or future prospects, but because of the loss of trust in those who claim to wish us well while visibly acting against us. The condition of the Romanian farmer remains a burden carried in silence, abandoned by public interest. Marked by the aging and unrewarded toil of its workforce, Romanian agriculture is stepping into desolation. This disappearance, in turn, gives rise to a consumer market that enjoys a perverse prosperity of cheaper products, yet ones foreign to Romanian soil. Romanian farmers thus breathe their last, and slowly, the fields fall silent.