European farmers challenge ‘political daftness’

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Protesting farmers dump a load of produce onto a main boulevard March 26 during a demonstration outside the European Council building in Brussels.

AP/Harry Nakos

Agricultural-journalist Caroline van der Plas is one of the founders of the 'Farmers Citizen Movement.' Its official name is the BoerBurgerBeweging or BBB. It was founded in November 2019.

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Farmers park their tractors March 26 near the European Council building in Brussels during a demonstration.

AP/Geert Vanden Wijngaert

Belgian farmer and politician Bart Dochy stands Feb. 13 in front of tractors in a barn at his family farm near Ledegem, Belgium. As the Christian Democrat mayor of the farming town of Ledegem and a parliamentarian, Dochy represents the powers that have always been dominant in farming communities for centuries in large swathes of Europe – Christian and conservative.

AP file photo/Virginia Mayo

Farmer's Defense Force vice-president Jos Ubels poses March 18 for a portrait at his farm in Anderen, Northern Netherlands. Ubels says everything from overbearing bureaucrats insisting when farmers should sow or harvest, imposing excessive restrictions on fertilizer and manure use, and unfair international competition condoned by the European Union have created a potent mix that has driven him away from mainstream politics.

AP/Peter Dejong

Angry farmers scuffle with police officers Feb. 24 at the International Agriculture Fair as French President Emmanuel Macron tours the exhibition on the opening day in Paris. Farmers across Europe have been protesting for weeks regarding what they say are excessively restrictive environmental rules.

AP file photo/Lewis Joly

Frans Timmermans, European Commissioner for the European Green Deal, speaks during a media conference June 28, 2023, at EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. The EU is seeking to push through stringent nature and agricultural laws as part of its vaunted Green Deal that needs to turn the bloc into a climate-neutral continent by 2050. It's forcing farmers through drastic changes at a time of financial insecurity.

AP File photo/Virginia Mayo

Marion Marechal, executive vice-president of the French far-right party 'Reconquete,' center, speaks Jan. 24 with farmers and journalists during a demonstration of French and Belgian farmers outside the European Parliament in Brussels.

AP file photo/Virginia Mayo

A tractor collects straw Aug. 10, 2023, on a field in a private farm in Zhurivka, Kyiv region, Ukraine. Add the Ukraine war – and the EU's decision to give the embattled nation sizeable leeway to export its cheap produce that often doesn't need meet the strict environmental standards that EU farmers face – and it makes for a perfect storm just as the EU-wide elections are drawing near.

AP file photo/Efrem Lukatsky

Polish farmers protest Feb. 27 in Warsaw, Poland, with national flags and angry slogans written on boards protest against European Union green policies that trim their production, as well as against cheap grain and other food imports. Across the European Union long convoys of tractors have cut off economic lifelines like ports and beltways around major cities, sometimes for days on end, with costs to industry running into the tens of millions daily and keeping hundreds of thousands of people from going to work.

AP File photo/Czarek Sokolowski

People walk Jan. 24 under a banner advertising the European elections outside the European Parliament in Brussels. The Farmers Defense Force and partners plan to hold one more massive protest of farmers June 4 close to EU headquarters in Brussels. Voting for the elections starts two days later.

AP file photo/Virginia Mayo

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Chris McCullough For Agri-View

EUROPEAN UNION – Dairy farmers in almost all the 27 Member States in the European Union have recently taken to the roads in their tractors protesting against “daft regulations crippling their businesses.” Historically the French top the winners podium when it comes to challenging politics they don’t like, but their form of protesting has now become infectious throughout the rest of Europe.

With 20 years experience behind him, award-winning agricultural journalist Chris McCullough is always on the hunt for his next story. He grew up on the family dairy farm in the heart of Northern Ireland and is based on the country’s east coast. He travels around the world to bring readers international news.