From the United Kingdom to India, from Spain to the borders of Ukraine, farmers across the world have been taking to the streets. While the specific triggers might differ, the protests seem to be driven by similar fears and frustrations, with possible repercussions for global food security.

In Argentina, demonstrators requested lower taxes and more favourable exchange rates for agricultural exports. In India, demands included minimum support prices to protect against price fluctuations. In Europe, farmers protested against an end of tax rebates on agricultural diesel (Germany); the suspension of trade restrictions for imports from Ukraine causing unfair competition for local farmers (Poland); and overly strict quality and environmental standards in the European Union and related bureaucracy (France); to name but a few.

Agricultural and trade policies that frame and support farmers’ activities embrace multiple objectives. Over time, these policies have evolved away from focusing solely on supporting agricultural output to encompass more and more complex objectives such as mitigating climate change, protecting the environment, and preserving landscapes and biodiversity. Farmers may perceive the conditioning of agricultural support on progress towards these broader objectives as jeopardizing their competitiveness in international markets.

By definition, agriculture remains dependent on the vagaries of weather. In view of the challenges facing the planet, the need for the agrifood sector to transform is evident. According to recent estimates of the International Panel on Climate Change, agriculture contributes about 20 percent to global greenhouse gas emissions and accounts for about 70 percent of global freshwater use. Already, climate change is believed to have resulted in an increased frequency, intensity and duration of heat-related events and droughts as well as heavy precipitation and floods that have each adversely impacted agricultural yields and production.

The current protests underscore the challenges in agrifood system transformation, at the nexus of food security, farming livelihoods and climate change issues. How governments respond to them could potentially have profound consequences for global food security. Imposing additional barriers to imports in a quest to protect domestic producers, for example, would risk negatively impacting not only domestic but also global availability – and consequently also prices – of agricultural products.

Since its inception, AMIS has advocated for well-functioning, open agricultural markets. The attributes of these markets may well be at stake if the policy environment cannot be aligned to the needs of farmers and communicated effectively to agricultural producers around the world.