In a barn in the flat fields of the northern Netherlands, Jos Ubels is holding a new baby cow called Blonde d’Aquitaine. It is the newest animal to join his group of over 300 dairy cows.
Europe is making farmers like Ubels follow more rules to help with climate change. He spends one day each week dealing with paperwork for the European Union and government officials. They want to decide when farmers can plant and harvest crops, and how much fertilizer or manure they can use.
At the same time, foreign products that are cheaper are lowering the prices for their crops, even though they don’t have to follow the same rules. Mainstream political parties didn’t help farmers with their problems for many years, according to Ubels. Now the extreme right is getting involved.
In many countries in the EU, like Finland, Greece, Poland, and Ireland, farmers are getting more and more upset as the June EU parliamentary elections get closer.
Ubels is the second leader of the Farmers Defence Force, which is one of the most well-known groups to come out of the movement. The FDF started in 2019 and now also exists in Belgium. Its symbol is a crossed double pitchfork. It is linked to similar groups in other EU countries and is leading a planned protest in Brussels on June 4. It wants 100,000 people to come to the EU capital and influence the election results.
Ubels said we should stand up and fight back now. “We’re finished with being quiet and doing as we’re told. ”
Did he stop believing in democracy. “No” I no longer believe in politics. And that is one step away.
The FDF is saying that they are losing confidence in the law.
‘Don’t give up’
In March, angry farmers from Belgium caused chaos at a protest outside EU headquarters in Brussels. They set fire to a subway station entrance and threw eggs and liquid manure at the police. In France, people tried to break into a government building to protest.
In a video from another protest, FDF leader Mark van den Oever said he was disgusted by two politicians and that they would soon be the focus of attention. The FDF denies that this was a threat of physical violence.
In the EU, during the winter, groups of tractors stopped ships from coming into ports and blocked big roads. This happened for a few days and was one of the most serious protests by farmers in 50 years.
Farmers and the European Union have not always gotten along well. What’s different now is that people are moving more toward the very conservative side.
After World War II, Europe was very poor and hungry, especially during the winter. They really needed to make sure they had enough food. The EU helped make sure there was plenty of food for the people and helped farmers sell their products to other countries. They also give farmers more than 50 billion euros each year.
However, even though farming is very important, the EU knows that farmers make about 40% less money than people who don’t work on farms. Also, 80% of help goes to only 20% of the farmers who are well-off. Many of the 8. 7 million farm workers in the bloc are poor or almost poor.
The EU wants to make strict rules to protect the environment and farming as part of its plan to stop climate change by 2050. Farming in the EU produces a lot of greenhouse gases, like nitrous oxide from fertilizers, carbon dioxide from vehicles, and methane from cows. These gases make up over 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the EU.
Reducing these emissions has made farmers make sudden changes to their usual practices during a time when they are already struggling financially. The cost of things and people’s wages are higher because of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising prices. Farmers are making less money because people are spending less.
And then there is a war happening in the neighboring country. After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the EU allowed Ukraine to import agricultural goods without paying tariffs. Some of these goods don’t have to meet the EU’s strict environmental rules. Imports increased a lot from 7 billion euros in 2021 to 13 billion euros the next year. This caused too much of the products and lower prices for farmers, especially in Poland.
Marion Maréchal, a candidate for France’s extreme right Reconquest. party, told farmers at a protest to keep going and not give up. This happened earlier this year. “You have to be outside on the roads. ” You need to speak up and be noticed. “You have to,” she tried to say, but was interrupted by people shouting “Don’t give up. Don’t give up. “