Perhaps no other sector of the economy was more impacted by the green lunacy than Agriculture.
European farmers, as in one voice, say that the green policies and taxes are taking them to the very edge of bankruptcy, in what becomes in all practical terms a ‘manufactured famine’.
So the protests have sprung up all over Europe, ahead of the EU elections in June, with the Agricultural workers demanding more government subsidies and protection from cheap grain from abroad.
The local demands vary, but they all claim to be taking the hardest hit from environmental reforms, and therefore they need more government subsidies to offset them.
Euronews reported:
“In Romania, farmers and truckers have been clogging up main roads with their tractor and trucks for a week and a half now. They’re demanding lower taxes and fairer subsidies, but so far talks with the government have failed, and they’re continuing to protest. They’re also angry over the growing cost of insurance for heavy machinery.”
German farmers on the streets since December, were joined shoulder-to-shoulder with eco-activists. Farmers say that they are fully supportive of environmentally friendly, genetically unmodified farming, but for that, they do need subsidies or, at least, fair prices set for their products.
“In France, mass protests forced the government to address farmers’ issues. Earlier, farmers vowed to block some motorways until [PM] Attal heard their demands. The FNSEA has said it will decide next week whether they will call for nation-wide action.
[…] The farmers say that authorities’ eco-transition policies make national producers uncompetitive. Not only does it make farms unprofitable, it forces France to buy food products from countries where environmental standards are weaker they claim.”
Some countries have their specific issues, of course, as is the case of Poland and the threat of cheap, substandard Ukrainian grain flooding their markets.
AFP reported:
Farmers launched over 160 road protests with tractors and farm machinery, blocking or slowing traffic as they beeped horns and waved Polish flags.
“‘We are opposed to uncontrolled imports of agriculture products from Ukraine’, Adrian Wawrzyniak, a spokesman for Farming Solidarity union, told AFP.”
Poland banned Ukrainian grain imports under the previous PiS government. PM Turk’s new pro-EU coalition coming to power in an October election found it wise to maintain it.
“Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday he would aim to ‘sign a deal’ with Ukraine regulating the transit and export of products, […] ‘so that the Polish market, Polish agricultural producers, Polish farmers are not threatened by an uncontrolled inflow of agricultural products from Ukraine’.”
Lithuanian farmers are staging four days of demonstrations in the capital, Vilnius. Their particular issues are the low prices for their produce, as well as the misguided anti-Russian sanctions hurting their businesses.
Sputnik reported:
“Protesters are bringing agricultural machinery and will hold a rally outside the government in Vilnius, said the Lithuanian Agricultural Council, the organizer. The city council issued a permit for a gathering of up to 850 tractors and other agricultural machinery.
Lithuania has been one of the leading champions of anti-Russia sanctions in the West. However, this policy has boomeranged against the small Baltic State, causing a spike in inflation and a slowdown in economic growth.”