Since the start of 2024 there have been farming protests across all EU countries. They are protesting a suite of issues including regulation, economic constraints, political favouritism and often the extreme EU net zero targets which are impacting use of fertilisers and use of land. The EU is doing this to its own members!
Here in the UK the net zero maniacs in the Labour Party have attacked farmers with punitive inheritance tax changes which will endanger small and medium sized family farms. Farming is already on its knees commercially. And they did this despite seeing the carnage in the EU this year. This situation is utter madness. Farming should be encouraged and protected in every nation state.
Once a nation loses its ability to sustain its own people with its own food they are forever at the mercy of the globalists. The EU loving Labour Party should be ashamed of themselves.
@A-Unique-Nickname saidThat’s what farmers do!
it's time we all started to grow our own food and trade with others.
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@divegeester saidThe don't. They pollute the planet and kill all the bugs.
That’s what farmers do!
Most farms are not the cute red barns you see in movies in the middle of a rural area. Most farms are factories owned by corporations. The protests in France where people drove around in their tractors provide a false image of small business owners protesting the big-bad government, but that's not accurate.
Factory farms provide most of the developed world's food and are one of the world's biggest industries.
Anti-climate rhetoric is driven by right-wing media who use propaganda to sway public opinion, when they themselves are driven by corporate interests.
Even if farms were mostly operated by small-business rural farmers (they're not) what good are they on a ruined planet? Europe constantly sees devasting floods destroying buildings (and farmland), killing hundreds of people each year, only to be followed by searing summer temperatures, killing even more people.
Something has to be done since the science and data is clear; climate change is an existential threat to humanity.
@divegeester saidUnfortunately, many farming practices from the past have been very destructive to the land. Louis Bromfield wrote a lot about rejuvenating worn-our farmland in the 1950's - I've visited his Malabar Farm in Ohio. A very interesting guy.
Farming should be encouraged and protected in every nation state.
Government support (e.g. farm bills) often encourages farmers to do things with their land that don't make economic sense in the the long term - planting maize in areas where you only get a crop 1 year in 4, over-reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, irrigating in dry areas such that rivers and aquifers are depleted.
Farming is a tough business, but many people love it. I agree that as small businesses, farms shouldn't be broken up or penalized just because a new generation takes over.
But I'm not sure I would say to government "we have to protect farming" - I think that just opens the door to regulatory capture from agribusiness.
@A-Unique-Nickname saidThey don’t pollute the planet, and they only kill some of the bugs on the food.
The don't. They pollute the planet and kill all the bugs.
@vivify saidGood luck getting your food from China.
Most farms are not the cute red barns you see in movies in the middle of a rural area. Most farms are factories owned by corporations. The protests in France where people drove around in their tractors provide a false image of small business owners protesting the big-bad government, but that's not accurate.
Factory farms provide most of the developed world's food and a ...[text shortened]... to be done since the science and data is clear; climate change is an existential threat to humanity.
@spruce112358 saidIf smaller non corporate farming isn’t protected and encouraged then all we have left are the big corporate factory farms, or worse still importing it all and at what cost.
Unfortunately, many farming practices from the past have been very destructive to the land. Louis Bromfield wrote a lot about rejuvenating worn-our farmland in the 1950's - I've visited his Malabar Farm in Ohio. A very interesting guy.
Government support (e.g. farm bills) often encourages farmers to do things with their land that don't make economic sense in the the ...[text shortened]... ave to protect farming" - I think that just opens the door to regulatory capture from agribusiness.
@vivify saidI think all farmers today are farming much more land than their grandfathers.
Most farms are not the cute red barns you see in movies in the middle of a rural area. Most farms are factories owned by corporations. The protests in France where people drove around in their tractors provide a false image of small business owners protesting the big-bad government, but that's not accurate.
Factory farms provide most of the developed world's food and a ...[text shortened]... to be done since the science and data is clear; climate change is an existential threat to humanity.
My biggest concern with the factory farm is treating land as commercial property - buying it, depreciating the cost over 10 years on their taxes, farming it badly, and then selling the worn-out land and starting over.
There are huge differences in soil that has been farmed responsibly to build up the organic content vs soil that is just fertilized and treated chemically, especially regarding how well the land holds moisture.
A farm should be owned and farmed for generations, always building it up - never stripping it for short-term profit.
@divegeester saidNeonicotinoid pesticides have been a disaster for bee populations.
They don’t pollute the planet, and they only kill some of the bugs on the food.
@divegeester saidSustainability is the key, I think, for any size farm. I don't know how government can really help that, honestly. By doing what? Governments don't really have that sort of expertise.
If smaller non corporate farming isn’t protected and encouraged then all we have left are the big corporate factory farms, or worse still importing it all and at what cost.
@divegeester saidOh please.
Good luck getting your food from China.
You think think the €580 billion farming industry will just pack up and quit? Why, because climate change laws might reduce profits to €570 billion?
@spruce112358 saidThat's a good point.
I think all farmers today are farming much more land than their grandfathers.
My biggest concern with the factory farm is treating land as commercial property - buying it, depreciating the cost over 10 years on their taxes, farming it badly, and then selling the worn-out land and starting over.
There are huge differences in soil that has been farmed responsibly to ...[text shortened]... owned and farmed for generations, always building it up - never stripping it for short-term profit.
Even putting aside climate change, farming industries still harm the very land they use, as well as the local wildlife, lakes, streams, rivers and drain the reserve water supply needed by average citizens.
@spruce112358 saidIt must be the regulations preventing its use which has caused farmers all over Europe to protest.
Neonicotinoid pesticides have been a disaster for bee populations.