, Columnist
Europe’s Big Farms Could Be Great for the Planet
By focusing on the largest operations, the EU could achieve the most environmental impact with the least disruption.
Steward of the environment.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
If the European Union’s leaders want to achieve the green transition in agriculture, Jonas Wappler is exactly the kind of farmer they need on their side. As the chief executive of a large crop-and-dairy operation that straddles the German states of Saxony and Thuringia, he’s capable of having an outsized impact. At 27, he’s young enough to see the results in his lifetime.
Instead, Europe’s wide-ranging agro-environmental reforms have made an opponent of him. “It’s greenwashing,” he says. “They’re playing politics at farmers’ expense.”