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You're listening to EU Watchdog Radio.

Welcome to a new episode of EU Watchdog Radio.

My name is Hans Van Schare, media officer at Corporate Europe Observatory, also known as CEO. First, some good news. This podcast will, as you have maybe noticed since this year, have several presenters.

Now the less good news. In this episode of E.O. Watchdog Radio, we will dive in a policy fallout of the Ukraine war.

First of all, our minds and hearts go out to all those innocent victims of this horrible war,

which is already ongoing for one month.

And as a journalistic saying goes, the very first victim of every war is the truth. Apart from all the

heartbreaking suffering due to this war, we are also witnessing more and more fallout in

the form of corporate and political opportunism. Politicians and lobbyists alike are

abusing these war times to push through things that in times of peace were not

possible or not so easy.

In this episode we will focus on food and agriculture.

Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, many conservative politicians and lobbyists of pesticide multinationals

and the agro industry have been calling for suspension of greening initiatives that the EU had

announced with its Green Deal. Notably French President Macron and politicians of the

conservative political family EPP have used the war and looming food crisis to push environmental

rules off the table. Because Ukraine and Russia are major exporters of

fertilizers and food crops as wheat, corn and food oils, the food prices are indeed rising. So powers that

be in the European Union now call for increased food production and pushing aside of the very few sustainable policies

that the EU had. Using humanitarian arguments such as increasing risks of hunger, lobbyists

...