Did you know what CEJA recently wrote in its letter to Europe?

They wrote it needs a Common Agricultural Policy that has the ambition and resources to support those who are entering and establishing themselves in farming. Because they require functioning markets and a fairer distribution of value and risk along the food chain. They require research and innovation that reaches farms. They require rural areas where young people can access services, connectivity and opportunities. They need all that to continue. 

CEJA, the European Council of Young Farmers is the voice of Europe's next generation of farmers to the European institutions and a forum for dialogue between Europe’s next generation of farmers and key decisionmakers. 

A young farmer needs to be able to look ten, twenty or thirty years ahead and believe that there will still be a place for them in European agriculture. This is why generational renewal is about much more than the farmers’ age. It is about confidence. Confidence that farming will provide a viable livelihood. Confidence that investment will be rewarded. Confidence that the rules will be stable enough to plan for the future. Confidence that markets will not systematically place the greatest risks on those with the least bargaining power. Confidence that rural areas will remain places where people can stay and build fulfilling lives.

Young farmers assure Europe that they are already investing in what it wants to be. They are investing in farms that are becoming more resilient to climate change. They are investing in new technologies and new production methods. They are investing in soil, water, energy efficiency and biodiversity. They are investing in businesses that create employment and sustain rural communities.

And they are not asking Europe to protect farming from change but to make change possible. They do not ask it to remove every risk from farming but to make sure that those who take risks to feed Europe are not left to carry them alone. They do not ask it to give young farmers a future but to help them build it.

They are Europe’s young farmers.