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"Farmer protests have characterised much of the debate on climate and the environment in the EU in recent years. The protests and the European Commission′s subsequent rollback on environmental requirements for farming have cast doubt on the viability of the European Green Deal (EGD). Work on farms is inherently intertwined with nature. Climate change—through rising temperatures and extreme weather events—is already impacting working conditions. At the same time, agriculture is responsible for 11% of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU and is a major cause of biodiversity loss. Most research on the EGD has tended to focus on energy-related sectors, with comparatively less research on what it means for sectors like agriculture. This article applies a social law lens to legislation on agriculture in the EU and asks: what does the EGD mean for those who work in agriculture, and, to what extent is a just transition envisioned for the sector? The article is situated within a broader turn in labour law scholarship to examine the labour-nature nexus. It identifies social measures within the EGD, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), with a focus on two disadvantaged groups: smallholder farmers and farmworkers. The article argues that there are elements of a just transition in current EU policies and legislation on agriculture, such as income support provisions, targeted measures for young farmers, and the introduction of a social conditionality clause. However, the social dimension of these instruments require further development to strengthen the connection between social concerns on the one hand, and economic and environmental concerns on the other. More fundamentally, the article points to a lack of a coherent vision of what a just transition in agriculture should entail—particularly in terms of its economic model and the position of those most affected, including smallholder farmers and farmworkers. This gap may help in explaining some of the underlying reasons for the farmer protests."

This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

"Work in the fisheries is intertwined with nature, and the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation are already being felt. In order to address climate change, the EU put forward a new growth strategy, the European Green Deal seeks to decouple growth from resource use and achieve climate neutrality by 2050. A sustainable blue economy is recognised as crucial to this transition. However, what do these developments mean for those who work in one of its main sectors, the fisheries? This article examines two key pieces of EU fishing legislation, the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and the Work in Fishing Directive 2017/159, to examine the extent to which workers and the environment are addressed by them. In the CFP, while sustainability is a key objective and defined as environmental, economic and social, social sustainability remains underdeveloped. In turn, in the Work in Fishing Directive, the article shows how there are limited overlaps between the employment protections and recognition of environmental impacts. This article argues that law for the fisheries has created a false disjuncture between regulating work and the environment and this has a consequence of hindering any meaningful pursuit of sustainability or a just transition in the sector."

This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).