NICK POPE
CONTRIBUTOR
- European farmers across the continent have protested against national governments and the European Union (EU) over cheap imports and green agricultural policies that are undermining their livelihoods.
- Countries including Germany, Spain, Poland, Italy and the Czech Republic have all engaged in disruptive demonstrations to vent their frustrations.
- “We’re going to increase the pressure because it’s clear that the proposals we are seeing from the EU and the Spanish government are purely cosmetic and do not resolve the problems of farmers,” Luis Cortés, the leader of a major Spanish agricultural trade union, told The Telegraph.
Farmers have risen up in protest across Europe to slam national and European Union (EU) climate policies that threaten their economic interests.
Czech farmers descended upon the streets of Prague on Monday in their tractors, protesting burdensome regulations and green policies that are adding to inflationary stress that the farmers assert is ruining their livelihoods, according to Euronews. The Czech farmers’ protests are the latest in a wave of similar demonstrations across Europe lashing out against EU climate policies, coming on the heels of outcries in Italy, Spain, Poland, Germany, Hungary, France and the Netherlands.
The farmers are enraged that the EU has attempted to inject climate policies into agricultural practices at a time when poor macroeconomic conditions are already straining their ability to compete with farmers from other places who are able to sell their products for less, according to numerous reports.
The European Commission — the de facto executive arm of the EU — sets what is known as the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which sets standards and the guidelines for agricultural subsidies that govern European farming. The most recent CAP went into effect on January 1, 2023, and it is specifically designed to force the European agricultural sector into closer compliance with the European Green Deal.
The European Green Deal calls for a 50% reduction in the use of certain pesticides by 2030, and the European Commission is pushing to achieve a 90% reduction in emissions by 2040 in a move that would substantially alter how European farmers manage their farms. (RELATED: Germany Went All In On The Green Transition. Now, Its Economy Is Crumbling)
Rand Paul: ‘The Green Movement Has Put Europe Under the Thumb of Putin’ pic.twitter.com/n4Ck9bMl8K
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 17, 2022
In Prague, farmers are rallying against stifling bureaucratic supervision of their operations and climate regulations that they assert make their products artificially more expensive than imports from outside of the EU, according to Reuters.
“We came today mainly because of the bureaucracy around farming, the paperwork is on the edge of what is bearable,” Lukas Melichovsky, a Czech farmer, told Reuters on Monday.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala suggested that the protesters are aligned with the Kremlin, referencing the fact that the nation’s leading agricultural unions have largely distanced themselves from the demonstrations.
Hundreds of Italian farmers ventured to Rome in early February to vent similar frustrations, deriding the EU’s efforts to impose climate policy into agricultural production while not doing enough to level the playing field with non-EU products subject to less stringent regulatory regimes, according to Politico.
Protesting farmers displayed signs and placards with slogans like “Unfair Market — You Are Taking Away Our Dignity!” and “No Farmers, No Food!” while they demonstrated, according to Politico.
Meanwhile, in Spain, farmers staged disruptive protests for more than two weeks in February, blockading highways and distribution hubs to demonstrate their displeasure with the new CAP, according to The Telegraph.
“We have to leave 11 per cent of our land unsown or fallow, but we still have overheads and pay taxes; it’s absurd,” Luis Cortés, the leader of a major Spanish agricultural trade union, told The Telegraph.
“We’re going to increase the pressure because it’s clear that the proposals we are seeing from the EU and the Spanish government are purely cosmetic and do not resolve the problems of farmers,” Cortés said, adding that the CAP has been “catastrophic” in part because “subsidies have decreased while environmental measures increase.”
Polish farmers also continued a wave of disruptive protests into February, blocking border crossings with Ukraine to highlight perceived trade imbalances and criticizing elements of the EU Green Deal, according to multiple outlets. The country’s leading agricultural unions backed the demonstrations, unlike in Italy and Poland, Euractiv reported.
“We oppose restrictions that the European Green Deal would impose on us and the influx of low-quality Ukrainian food to Poland under the liberalized EU trade rules,” one unnamed Polish apple farmer, who did not engage in the protests but supports the message, told Euractiv.
The EU extended the suspension of tariffs against certain Ukrainian agricultural goods at the end of January, justifying the decision as standing in solidarity with Ukraine while it tries to repel the ongoing Russian invasion, according to Euractiv. (RELATED: Europe Imposes First-Ever Climate Tax On Imported Goods)
Woke energy policy is sending Europe back to the Dark Ages https://t.co/x7L7xNzyLI
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) December 30, 2022
Hungarian farmers launched their own simultaneous protests in conjunction with those seen in Poland, for nearly the same exact reasons, according to Euronews.
German farmers launched a massive, week-long protest in January to push back against the German government’s plans to slash key agricultural subsidies to plug a 17 billion euro budget gap and maintain funding for green initiatives.
The German government warned that extreme right-wing elements were co-opting the demonstrations.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD), the country’s leading right-wing populist party, supported the protests. The party has seen its popularity rise significantly since Russia invaded Ukraine, and it is now the second-most popular political party in Germany, according to polling data aggregated by Politico.
French farmers also rose up in January and early February, blockading roadways across the country to cause disruption and protest stifling regulations and cheap imports undercutting their share of the market, according to France24. Demonstrators sprayed manure on government buildings to express their discontent, according to The Associated Press.
About one in every five French farms went under between 2010 and 2020, according to France24.
Dutch farmers engaged in similar protests in November 2023, preempting the wave of demonstrations that has marked the first two months of 2024 elsewhere in Europe. The farmers were enraged by the government’s plans to reduce the amount of livestock in the country by about 50% and shutter major farms in order to come into compliance with EU nitrogen emissions regulations, according to The Economist, and their protests precipitated the unexpected electoral victory of right-wing populist Geert Wilders in November 2023.
The European Commission did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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Tbis shows just how smart the Brits were to vote for Brexit.
It also shows how unprintably arrogant and stupid all their leaders have been since then (except Liz Truss), refusing to implement Brexit properly and keeping Britain tied to Europe.
With the coming non-choice between Rishi Starmer and Keir Sunak, the Brits are guaranteed to be shafted.
yes and no:“refusing to implement Brexit properly
The Blob did that (US trans: Deep State or Swamp)
It came out of Tony Blair ‘politicising’ the Civil Service, where upon 100’s thousands of faceless nameless little nobodies in offices all around the UK but esp Westminster & Whitehall, all became card carrying communists and Remoaners.
Government of any or all colours found themselves unable to enact anything that The Blob thought it didn’t like or that threatened the immensely cosy little empires being built within it.
The Blob has expanded and is now fully active at what everyone imagines to be the Building Site sometimes referred to as ‘Hinckley’
The workforce there is now riddled with saboteurs doing all they can to drive that project, and this country, into a ditch. ##
The Blob is also driving UK farm policy – out the sure and certain knowledge that all farmers are equally evil twins to Toad of Toad Hall.
And are all = Gun-toting wildlife-slaughtering climate-wrecking maniacs and Insanely Rich to boot
Which is a bit odd as most UK folks have ‘farming aspirations’
For those in the know (UK farmers themselves) – The only rich farmer is a dead farmer
## Hinckley is not about ‘making electricity’ although that is what it should/will do.
Hinckley (and Sizewell) are The Huge Rotating Machines that will enable the UK Grid to recover from the total blackout that Renewable Energy will ensure happens.
Without Hinckley, when the lights in the UK go out, they will remain out.
Blob is doing all it can to ensure that happens.
“With the coming non-choice between Rishi Starmer and Keir Sunak, the Brits are guaranteed to be shafted.”
Nice one!
Brexit sounds like a great idea. Maybe Britain should try it.
Chris
We would if we could…
Both the government and the Labour Party belive in the need to combat climate change and get to net zero. That is their number one priority, which is why they still align themselves with EU regulations. The UK is on a steep downhill path to political-imposed poverty, while China looks on wondering how the west can be so stupid.
Governments are there for one reason, to get re-elected. If they think they are making the popular choice they will choose that and are driven by the polls unless other more powerful influences take hold, like the failing EV industry, mass protest marches etc.
To date the public has shown overwhelming support for NeZero and the pain is starting to bite. But until the polls show a significant shift all governments will go with NetZero.
Correction, government exist for one reason, to stay in power.
Sometimes that involves elections, but modern governments have developed ever more elaborate methods to make sure that elections no longer challenge their authority.
Lenin talked about using capitalists to make the rope that will be used to hang them; now the “capitalists” want to move all the rope factories to China so they can sell it cheap.
China is investing up to £125bn in the UK up to 2025 . A large part is in the UK’s power network but the Government think that’s a good thing!
How political fig-leaves work #94
Close allies, best buddies….
November 2022 – “Biden calls UK closest ally and closest friend in meeting with PM Sunak”
December 2023 – “Joe Biden signals he has no interest in signing US-UK trade agreement”
With friends like that….
I doubt Biden remembers where the UK is, let alone who Sunak is.
That’s as may be.
But it doesn’t go unnoticed. In fact, it dents your cause considerably.
Creepy Joe had lunch with Margaret Thatcher the other day.
I hear Che Guevara is pencilled in for lunch next Wednesday
Always the same phrase from the governments…
“Hijacked by right wing activists”
So disconnected from the population’s real lives while they are insulated from consequences of their actions.
Most EU governments are so far to the left, that 90% of the population is part of the right wing fringe.
There’s always been a problem with cheaper imports from outside the EU, that was one major reason for having the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the first place. Time was when we (the EEC) had butter, beef, grain etc etc mountains, not to mention wine, milk, olive oil lakes etc.
Now, we have to consider getting used to shortages.
The spin I have seen in the meejah has focused more on ‘cheaper imports’ as a threat and gloss over the suicidal green directives issued by the EU’s Politburo, sorry, Commission. The UK is no longer bound by EU directives, but we shadow them – through the “ever-remainer Parliament” – just the same. Sometimes, it’s a race with the EU as to who can dedevelop hardest and fastest. Currently, Germany seems to be winniing that one.
“”The European Commission did not respond immediately to a request for comment.””
Have you tried the people who appointed the commissiners in the first place? I thought not.
First question: What favours etc etc did you owe your nominee? We know about Blair/Mandelson and Blair/Ashton etc…..
Brexit remains more a word than a reality.
I’m just going to post something up here that I came across recently: (the creation of..) “..a central European economic association through customs treaties…(which)…will not have any common constitutional supreme authority and all its members will be formally equal, but in practice will be under German leadership and must stabilise Germany’s economic dominance over Mitteleuropa…” Something from the formation of the EU or EEC, perhaps? No – this is from before 1914 and constitutes the stated war aims of the Central Powers during WW1 – Germany’s Schlieffen plan was to force the other European powers into such a binding economic union as soon as victory allowed. It may have taken longer than anyone imagined but they achieved their war aims in the end.
“from before 1914”
There were competing ‘plans for Europe’ in the early 20th century. The Pan-Europa Movement, is the oldest European unification movement. It began with the publishing of Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi’s manifesto Paneuropa (1923). Yes another pesky Austrian….
CK’s plan was going nicely and then the organisation was prohibited by NSDAP Germany in 1933… Much later the plan was revived and embodied in the European Union – see Charlemagne Prize.
Hitler had plans for Aryan racial purity control and the removal of…., CK, on the other hand, had very different ideas which he laid out in his book Praktischer Idealismus (“Practical Idealism”, 1925 ), in which he predicted:
“The man of the future will be of mixed race. Today’s races and classes will gradually disappear owing to the vanishing of space, time, and prejudice. The Eurasian-Negroid race of the future, similar in its appearance to the Ancient Egyptians, will replace the diversity of peoples with a diversity of individuals.”
A drone race with no collective history, language or culture. Easy to control.
Every woe in the world was Trump’s fault a few years ago (and according to Biden it still is).
Now every woe in the world is Putin’s fault.
Next year it will be Trump’s turn again, along with Meloni, Wilders, Le Pen and (hopefully) Nigel Farage.
The globalist’s are sh*tting themselves.
Meloni? I don’t think so.
When she gets support from Trump, Le Pen, Farage etc. she’ll change. At the moment she risk’s the ire of the EU in the same way Orban of Hungary was openly threatened by the EU to bankrupt his country.
She may be timid, but I don’t think she’s daft.
To be fair it was all Putin’s fault before Trump as well – then it was Putin AND Trump’s fault at one point. They’ll keep bringing up one or the other ad nauseum as an object of directed hate until we get rid of the lot of ’em.
Before Trump, Russia was our friend. Remember Obama bending over for Russia for 8 years? Remember Romney call out Russia in the debates, only to have Barry ridicule him?
The 8 years of Obamba/Biden (+ Hillary/Kerry) were Russia’s golden years. Russia expanded its influence everywhere.
I would hardly describe encouraging trade with the biggest country in the world “bending over for Russia”.
And one of the principle neocons in the Ukraine conflict? Mitt Romney……..
If you mean Russia expanded it’s trade everywhere, correct, it did.
You’re saying Russia didn’t invade Ukraine on Obama’s watch, didn’t get new military bases in the Middle East, Central and South America while Obama twiddled his thumbs?
What about Uranium One
Russia has never been a friend to the USA – there was a time when the two were on ‘friendly’ terms, when Putin made a joke about joining NATO that made American politicians choke. That ‘reset button’ of Hillary Clintons was nothing more than a ploy to try to win over Medvedev – a Russian politician seen by the White House as a soft touch or a pushover. Putin taking over from Medvedev and a thawing of relations with Europe to the exclusion of the USA meant that the ‘friendly’ terms had to end and Putin had to be frozen out of the world dominated by the USA.
I never implied Russia was a friend to the US. Russia took great advantage of the US over the last 30 years, especially during the Obama administration.
Funny, when Trump tried to reset relations with Putin, he was lambasted for courting dictators, but it’s OK for the Democrats.
Yeah I think many US politicians (on both sides) are terrified by the idea of Europe aligned with Russia instead of the USA – this has dominated their thinking for some years now.
The blame goes Trump, Putin, then George Bush.
apart from the machinations of The Blob, what’s transpiring here is a re-hash of ‘Sri Lanka’
We all recall the Good Intentions and Fine Words that came out of there (just like here and now) about “Environment, Climate, Pollinators, Organic, pesticides, human health benefits etc etc blah blah blah”
That was all utter utter bullsh!t, coming as it was from an incompetent and corrupt administration that had spent every last penny it could upon itself.
Sri Lanka was bankrupt.
The same applies here.
‘Brussels’ has built such a huge and out-of-control monster of a bureaucracy, surrounded by legions of trough-snorters, rent-seekers and cronies, that it can no longer afford payments to farmers.
It’s that simple.
The measure of how paranoid they have become and thus protective of their ’empire’, that they can ‘at the drop of a hat‘ find 50 Billion euro to spend on bombs, bullets and missiles for Ukraine
(At the last count I think UK farmers got 3Billion per year) .
While a large German arms manufacturer the green light and every assistance possible to set up a huge factory inside Ukraine to make a lot of that shyte
It’s the same thing = Where magical-thinking and paranoid individuals project themselves onto others.
Basically, European farmers have all become miniature little Putins inside their deranged, lying, self-seeking and buck-passing minds
Just as the EPA does to ‘most everyone nowadays in the US
“a re-hash of ‘Sri Lanka”
The pilot green test. Of course, they won’t admit it was a total failure…
“A shift to better farming practices is possible, but Sri Lanka’s abrupt switch to organics offers a bitter lesson in how to change food systems in a sustainable way.”
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/7/15/23218969/sri-lanka-organic-fertilizer-pesticide-agriculture-farming
See, [somehow] they didn’t do it ‘right’.
While I don’t know how successful it might have been, the original plan was to slowly shift Sri Lanka to ‘organic’ practices over 10 or more years. That would have given the farmers a chance to find out what worked and what didn’t. Perhaps production would have been reduced and prices might have risen somewhat but it probably would not have been the disaster the newly elected politician created when he decided to do everything overnight instead of following the plan. There is a quite interesting history of the Lundberg Farms in California, or the Lundberg Family Farms, their trial and error development to product and financial success over quite a few years, that I read many years ago. It could serve as a guide, but not a strict recipe, for other developments.
Yeah, just like socialism. Every time.
“trough-snorters, rent-seekers and cronies” I like it!
Trust them they’re from the Gummint and they’re here to help-
Siemens Energy CEO: fixing onshore wind business will take years (msn.com)
Qld premier announces $570m battery industry strategy (msn.com)
Federal Court rules Seafarms’ major Kimberley prawn farm insolvent, appoints liquidators (msn.com)
Labor putting ‘band-aids’ on Australia’s power system: Terry McCrann (msn.com)
…and on and on it goes.
The European farmers rightly see government policies as detrimental to their lives but …. subsidies? Isn’t the elusive “free market” generally the best response to economic problems? Interlocking government programs often produce results that are incompatible.
Farmers blocking roads with tractors has a certain anarchistic appeal but it normally doesn’t work out when traffic is interrupted by other brands of protestors. The average driver, stopped amidst all this commotion while on their way to work or elsewhere, resents the fact that they’re being held up and tends to look unfavorably on the protest. They should explore means of calling attention to the situation without alienating the rest of the public.
It depends on the driver and what the protest is about. Protestors can get great support from the common person even if it is very inconvenient for that person.
Oh, I forgot about the nitwits gluing themselves to the street. They sure changed my mind about whatever it was.
The climate protesters blocking traffic certainly haven’t made any friends from people just trying to go about their business.
Perhaps people are more sympathetic to the farmers. How would anyone know, without independent media to report accurately and fairly?
”…without independent media to report accurately and fairly…”
Such an important point MSG. Reporting on the farmer revolt has been pathetic.
Story tip
Write a proposed article and sent it in.
Europeans and North Americans as well have little understanding of the essentials of food production. In the 19th century agriculture was king, employing millions and occupying the most important place in society. Now it is so mechanized and there are so few people involved that the general population is unaware that agriculture exists until they take a drive through the country side. There are two basic essentials to the life of any organism, food and sex. It’s the same for humans as it is for bacteria. But humans increasingly look at sex as recreation rather than procreation and forget that someone has to make an effort to get food to their table. AI and space exploration won’t mean much if there’s no maize, rice, beans or potatoes. And beef.
And pork. And lamb. And chicken. And vegetables. We can do without tofu, though. 😉
Can you feed tofu to pigs and chickens?
Greens that are against fertilizers and pesticides, if they lay down in the farmer’s furrows to prevent plowing and planting do you suppose the farmers and their allies will accept that with good nature?
Hopefully not. It would be fun to watch “climate protesters” being dragged through the fields by the plows.
The French farmers have been fully WOTUS-ed (excluding puddles – for now).
It isn’t about subsides.
If Putin didn’t exist as the boogeyman for autocrats in the West, they would have to invent him.
Not that Putin isn’t a villain, he is. What is the evidence that Putin is behind this, or that he or Russia benefits? If Trump gets reelected, they can go back to blaming him.
What evidence do you need that Putin caused a crisis of EU agriculture, really?
Yes please tell us what you need to see, we can have a dossier ready with the ‘evidence’ created within just a few days!
Of course, rather than addressing the farmer’s concerns, they’re concocting theories (conspiracy theories?) that some underhanded force is behind it all. Absolutely no willingness to reassess their policies.
What are they going to do? Admit to making a mistake or blame the convenient scapegoat over in Russia?
Private enterprises can grow by increasing markets or decreasing costs for their products providing increased earnings and advancement opportunities for their employees. Fundamental requirements for a prosperous enterprise.
Government agencies likewise seek expanded business by increasing the agency role in government to provide advancement opportunities and more pay for their employees. But their “product” is increased government services and more and increasingly more complex rules and regulations to achieve that “growth”.
The consequence is more expensive government services and consistently more onerous regulation. The EU is a second layer of government overreach and has destroyed Europe’s economy. Revolt is a natural and inevitable response.
“Demonstrators sprayed manure on government buildings…”
Coals to Newcastle…..
Government is the problem not the solution. Government at all levels need to be drastically reduced or eliminated. Many departments could be eliminated with nothing but good consequences. Those that shouldn’t be eliminated should be cut drastically starting at the top. Getting rid of the current leadership will almost always be a great step forward.