We are forced to poison you, Russians
Farmers have denied information about the usefulness of Russian food
Will domestic products remain on our tables after Russia's accession to the WTO4geo
The rules of the World Trade Organization will come into force one by one. Agricultural – in 2017.
In 5 years, all the food on our tables will comply with the international Food Safety Management System (English HACCP, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points). Hurray! But our farmers are nagging and getting in the way of progress: we, they say, will not pull these standards. We'll go broke. You will eat imported food. The table is a full bowl and an extinct village: is this really our soon-to-be future?
We are forced to poison you, RussiansThe housewives are sure that our food, although more expensive, is healthier.
They are echoed by agrarian officials: Russian means, by definition, eco–friendly. But manufacturers say otherwise in private conversations.
– We should not take milk with mucus and bacteria for processing, – the head of a large plant told KP, – but we take it because there are few raw materials. We shamefully call "second grade" what is drained into the sewer in Europe. Since 2017, there will be no "second", only "higher" and "first". Only I will close my factory by then.
– Our cheese–making has survived solely due to falsifications, - says Alexander Nikitin, a cheese magnate from Pskov. – Milk is sorely lacking, we have to use palm oil.
Yes, yes, the one that the head of Rospotrebnadzor Gennady Onishchenko, an expert on specks in someone else's eye, is looking for in Ukrainian products. By the way, Onishchenko's powers are somewhat weakened in the light of the creation of the Customs Union. From now on, within the three countries (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan), bans are adopted in concert by "supranational bodies". But as for the "outer perimeter" (and Ukraine is part of it – it is not a member of the Union), national regulation remains, and therefore the possibility of bans.
What are the chickens injected with?– A chicken lives in a factory for 32 days, during which time it turns from a chicken into a fat ostrich.
Why would I? – the head of a large poultry farm laughs.
He knows exactly what is "injected" (that is, injected) to chickens: hormones, antibiotics. But officials boast: poultry farming has grown by 160% since 2000.
– Tell your anonymous cowman that he's lying! – the head of the Rospticesoyuz, Vladimir Fisinin, is boiling. – There have never been growth hormones in Russia. Tetracycline antibiotics were banned in the USSR in 1956. Feed antibiotics banned in the EU (but allowed in the USA) are replaced with natural prebiotics. And the chickens are growing because breeding and feeding is correct.
Antibiotics and heavy metal salts remain in meat, the head of the National Meat Association Sergey Yushin does not agree.
– So that the animals do not get sick and make more profit, they are overfed with medicines, which then get into the consumer's stomach, – he says. – However, the Rosselkhoznadzor catches such would-be producers and periodically closes enterprises.
The periodic table in baby foodState Duma deputy and notable agrarian Andrei Tumanov does not believe the Rosselkhoznadzor very much and eats only what he has grown himself.
– Clean where they don't check. We do not have a quality control system in principle. And even if they undertake to analyze each potato, they still won't find anything. We don't have the right equipment. If you come across pure Russian products, then only those who from extreme poverty cannot afford either hormones or antibiotics, even the cheapest ones.
Unscrupulous manufacturers, if they do not poison, then they cheat in the pursuit of profit.– Safe drugs are often injected into animals to gain weight and give them a marketable appearance, – says Yushin. – This is normal if you don't overdo it.
And ours are overdoing it, instead of 5% of the weight, 30% is introduced. After all, abroad, the manufacturer is obliged to write on the packaging what and how much he injected. We don't. As a result, you fry pork or chicken, and you have liquid flowing from the meat. Don't get poisoned, but you have been deceived.
And will the West bring us clean food? Make no mistake, and there is a lot of chemistry there.
"We all grow up on pills and injections," the head of an American farmers' association told me at the time. – But we use expensive chemicals, the harm of which has not been proven. Prove the harm – we switch to even more expensive chemistry. There is no way to survive here without the support of the state. WTO rules require that the budget is forked out.
In Russia, the most primitive drugs are in use. There is no money for expensive ones.– So they find the periodic table in baby food, – complains a representative of a large agricultural holding.
Bankers are happyIf there is no money for expensive chemicals and medicines, the question is reasonable: where does the vaunted state support go?
After all, the budget spends $5.6 billion a year "on peasants". Moreover, officials like to talk about the fact that with the accession to the WTO, Russia has bargained for an even larger amount of authorized support than it currently has. So, the former Minister of Agriculture Elena Skrynnik said that there is an opportunity to raise the level of state support to $ 9 billion. in a year with $4 billion.
– That is, we have the opportunity to double the level of state support, – she said. – This period may last for several years, and then there is a planned decline, and only in 2018 we come out with a support level of $ 4.4 billion, by 2020 it is possible to reduce to $ 4 billion.
But in fact it turns out that we have the magic of big numbers in front of us. Firstly, no one is really going to give this money. The author of these lines has heard such revelations many times from officials of the agrarian department. Secondly, even what stands out is actually... does not stand out.
– Even 5 years ago, the money that the state gives still fell into the "hectare", that is, it reached the real arable land, turned into something tangible, - says the head of the agrofirm "TRIO" Evgenia Uvarkina. – Today, we immediately return 80% of the money to banks in the form of subsidizing interest rates on loans.
The situation is absurd. Formally, state support is growing. But in fact, the lion's share of this money does not leave the budget. They are immediately received by state banks.– It turns out that the state does not support the village, but the state banking sector, – concludes Uvarkina.
The effective rate of rural loans is 12-14%. And the state extinguishes almost all of it. It would seem, why not make it 2 – 3%, as in Belarus? And don't subsidize anything. But then the banks won't get anything. It's hard to get rid of the impression that the scheme was conceived precisely for the sake of running money.
They pay for lyingWhat does not go to state bankers falls into the hands of local officials.
Uvarkina wonders: why are the funds managed not by peasant unions and cooperatives, but by governors? This practice has unfortunate consequences.
– My friend milked 3.9 tons of milk in a year, – says a farmer from the Urals, – and state support was given from 4 tons. I tell him: you write down 100 kg, no one will check! They are in no way, as a result, they lost 1.5 million rubles. Fool. We have the whole village sitting on the postscript.
– They tell me in Moscow: we will give money if you produce so much meat, vegetables, milk, – a representative of the Ministry of Agriculture of one of the regions confides anonymously. – Well, I draw just as much as they want in Moscow. And I'm not even interested in how much they actually paid there. What for? It is clear that all our farmers and vaunted agricultural holdings are working at zero. Well, I'm going to be honest and deprive them of their money. They will die altogether.
Rosstat uses the data that is sent to it. He is in a sense a hostage of the situation. But not everything is so simple, says Finam analyst Alexander Osin. The cunning of statistics can be a kind of element of state policy.
– Vladimir Vysotsky was also outraged by the unreliability of statistics in one of the songs, – says Osin. – Yes, and in the USA it happens that they will draw a couple of zeros, then they will withdraw the data. It is simply impossible not to use the information and calculations of Rosstat, all state planning is based on these figures. Manipulations with food reporting can be caused, for example, by the desire to put pressure on inflation, to correct the behavior of market players in the right direction. The planned economy has not really gone anywhere, it has just become somewhat thinner and more elegant.
Half of the products are limeAnd here is the result of total attributions.
Half of the milk that is "statistically" produced in Russia is lime, according to the director of the agency DairyNews Mikhail Mishchenko.
– 31 million tons are being milked per year, and 16.5 million tons are being handed over for processing, how is that? – he is surprised. – They began to understand, it turned out that we really have production – these are the 16.5 million. tons. The rest is allegedly produced by people in private subsidiary farms. I have been to villages many times where there are papers in every yard along the milk river. I ask: I don't see your cows. And we, they say, have cut everyone for a long time and we take milk in stores.
Forty percent of Russian pork is also allegedly made in yards. And that's what's amazing. Production in 2011 increased by 3.6%, imports were not asleep either (33% are still imported), and consumption rose by only 2.8%. The question is, isn't there a 0.8% increase – a postscript? If not, then who ate this meat?
– Back in 2009, we doubted the methodology of official statistics and reported this to the first persons of the state, – says Yushin. – Isn't it a strange picture: according to reports, it turns out that in private subsidiary farms, where there are obviously no technologies at all, the efficiency is 30% higher than on modern agricultural farms!
Rosstat has graphs that are beautiful, as if drawn by skaters' skates, Yushin jokes sadly:
– But we know that this does not happen in life!
Mishchenko offers the newly appointed Minister Fedorov to confess everything.
– He can blame everything on his predecessors, – the expert cynically argues.
So state support is not just wasted, but also generates paper phantoms.
Strange coincidencesPostscript by postscript, but the production of chicken and pork has grown in our country.
But how shagreen skin shrinks the production of beef and milk. Isn't it strange? After all, the demand for milk and production is growing all over the world, but it is falling only in Russia and Ukraine. The paradox is explained as follows: investments in chicken and pig are repelled quickly, and in a cow slowly. Give time, there will be milk fountains and beef everests for you. But we've been hearing this since 2001. For 11 years it was possible to raise cowsheds.
And now a little bit of geopolitics. Europe is a continent of milk, butter, cheese and cows. Production is growing so fast that we have to limit it to quotas. And the USA is a paradise for poultry and pig farmers. Europe promoted our admission to the WTO, the United States prevented it. What has Russia done? "Punished" the United States, almost completely abandoning the "Bush legs" and pork there. And at the same time, she abandoned the milk with beef to the mercy of fate, as if clearing the way for European goods. Farmers believe that there is a reason.
We will eat Dutch cheese and we will raise Europe!– The agro-industrial complex of Russia has become a bargaining chip in a big auction, – says the director of one of the largest agricultural holdings.
WTO rules for agribusiness in Russia will start working in 2017. And since 2015, Europe has been lifting all restrictions on production. And at the same time introduces mechanisms that encourage farmers to export goods. Now restrictions are needed in order not to flood the cramped European market with goods. And there is nowhere to export much. Apparently, in the middle of the current decade, where will appear?
"For Europe, accepting Russia into the WTO meant saving themselves," says one of the former participants in the negotiations at the WTO headquarters. – At the beginning of the noughties, the EU took over the former socialist camp, although the eastern countries were not ready for this. We see the consequences now – the Old World is in a financial crisis. It is expensive to keep newcomers. But the problem states are entirely agrarian, and if you find a market for them, they will rise by themselves and turn from a weight on the neck of the EU into the locomotive of Europe. This market will be Russia.
"Don't let them mess with their brains"The former director of the information center for Russia's accession to the WTO, HSE Professor Alexei Portansky, does not believe in conspiracy theory and believes that farmers are powdering their brains.
– Our industry suffers from the supply of cheap dairy products from Belarus, – he says. – Europeans make expensive products, they are of little interest to the people, there will be no mass deliveries. There is a beef problem, but the specialists of the Ministry of Economic Development are looking for a solution.
But Anatoly Wasserman, a political scientist and activist of the Stop-WTO movement, takes peasant fears seriously.
– I don't believe in coincidences, they don't happen in big politics. Unfortunately, the government has left the issue to a narrow circle of experts. I do not yet know exactly how the EU lobbyists worked: they simply paid our experts or misled them with false information. It is in the interests of farmers to find out. If I were them, I would demand a full–scale investigation while there is time," Wasserman says.
As in Paris, it will notSo, our peasants fall into double scissors.
On the one hand, there are strict quality requirements. The HACCP system ruined even the disciplined Portuguese fishermen: they were unable to catch fish of the same size. And he'll grind our sloppies to powder. On the other hand, there are open borders with falling own production.
They will object to me: if our farmers feed us with bacteria and antibiotics, that's where they go. Let's forget for a moment that impoverished peasants will rush to already crowded cities. There are other arguments why we should not allow the collapse of our agro-industrial complex. Firstly, the HACCP quality system is partly crafty. We will not have the goods that are in Paris and Berlin.
– By 2017, they will switch to ultra–pure food, eco-friendly, without chemicals at all, - says a former dealer of a large Western chemical concern. – And we will get a mass product, yes, better than the current Russian one, but still based on chemistry and genetic engineering.
Secondly, European products will come to Russia cheap, but then they will become more expensive.
– There is a terrible shortage of food in the world, continents are starving, food cannot be cheap for a long time, – says Mikhail Mishchenko.
Is there a way outWill we unite with Belarus?
If we don't want such a development, what should we do? To increase production in sectors that are critical for Europe. Views turn to Belarus – the agro-industrial complex has not been destroyed there, the small country has become a world (4% of the global market) exporter of cheese, milk and meat.
"We are at war with Belarus now," Mishchenko says. – We consider it our competitor. But in fact, it is necessary to unite with Belarusians.
Belarus will be outside the WTO for a long time. But it is in a Customs Union with Russia. It would seem that a brilliant alignment. Russians can circumvent WTO requirements on Belarusian territory – if, of course, our farms enter into cooperation with Belarusian ones. But it was not there. Domestic peasants are so afraid of Belarusians that they do not want to be friends with them even in the face of the European threat. The other day, Russian industry unions again demanded sanctions on Belarusian goods from the Ministry of Agriculture.
EXPERT'S COMMENT
Sergey Gudkov, head of the Fish Union: "If we don't die, we will become stronger"
– On Tuesday, the State Duma talked about the fate of agriculture after joining the WTO, and all participants agreed on this. It is necessary to join the WTO, this is a progressive and good thing. But we need a delay. The 18 years that we have been negotiating with the WTO have been wasted. We are not ready for membership in the organization. Firstly, the system of state support has not been created. And secondly, the crisis of 2008 was great for everyone. The 5 years that have been allocated for adaptation since 2012 will not be enough.
After all, in a year some customs barriers will be removed, and in general, the main shock will be for the next 4 years. We need to delay the WTO at least until 2020. What should be done during this time? Take Germany, where a pledge for an agricultural loan is not required, and the loan itself is issued at a rate of 0.35%. And our rate starts at 17%. This should be changed first of all. If we talk about long-term consequences, then some industries and sub-sectors of the agro-industrial complex will die. But those that survive will become very strong and competitive on the world stage. The task of the state is to have more survivors.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru22.06.2012