Farmers Protest Across Europe

Narrowing profit margins and stifling regulations are pushing Europe’s farmers to the brink.

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Happy Thursday! The launch of Google’s latest artificial intelligence image generator, Gemini, probably didn’t go as smoothly as the tech giant had hoped. We at The Dispatch were more disappointed, however, when the model refused to illustrate an image “of a person who reads The Dispatch”—such a picture could apparently “lead to inaccurate representations and harmful stereotypes,” according to the chatbot. 

We wouldn’t characterize the traits widely associated with all our readers—wisdom, virtue, integrity, charisma, attractiveness, etc.—as “harmful,” per se.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

  • The United Kingdom announced new sanctions on Wednesday targeting six Russian prison officials who worked at the penal colony where opposition leader Alexei Navalny died late last week. U.K. officials have concluded, according to Bloomberg, that guards at the prison constantly subjected Navalny to torture-like conditions and solitary confinement.
  • James Biden testified before the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry into his brother, President Joe Biden. “I have had a 50-year career in a variety of business ventures,” James Biden said as part of his opening statement, as reported by multiple outlets. “Joe Biden has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest in those activities. None.” Hunter Biden, the president’s son, is expected to testify before the committee next week, on the heels of the indictment of former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, a key witness in the impeachment inquiry, that alleged Smirnov had lied about the Bidens’ business dealings with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings. 
  • President Biden announced Wednesday the cancellation of $1.2 billion in student loans for about 153,000 borrowers, affecting individuals enrolled in the income-based repayment program called Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) who have been in repayment for 10 years and took out $12,000 or less. “If you qualify, you’ll be hearing from me shortly,” Biden said Wednesday, referring to an email selected borrowers would receive alerting them that their loans had been canceled. “The Biden-Harris Administration has now approved nearly $138 billion in student debt cancellation for almost 3.9 million borrowers through more than two dozen executive actions,” a White House fact sheet said. 
  • Former Vice President Mike Pence launched the American Solutions Project, a $20 million organization that seeks to defend conservative principles from “​​the populist right and progressive left,” RealClearPolitics reported on Wednesday. “Our nation was founded on conservative principles that have stood the test of time,” Pence said in a statement. “The Constitution and this great American experiment must not be swayed by movements or personalities, but must hold fast to the time-honored principles that have made America strong and prosperous and free.” Pence sought the Republican nomination for president this cycle but dropped out of the race before a single primary vote was cast after his brand of conservatism failed to resonate with voters.
  • The University of Alabama at Birmingham, which houses the largest hospital in the state, announced Wednesday that it would pause all in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures. The pause follows an Alabama Supreme Court ruling last week that said frozen embryos created and stored through IVF were legally considered children under the state’s wrongful death laws. “We are saddened that this will impact our patients’ attempt to have a baby through IVF, but we must evaluate the potential that our patients and our physicians could be prosecuted criminally or face punitive damages for following the standard of care for IVF treatments,” the hospital said in a statement released yesterday.

We Are Farmers

Farmers gather on February 17, 2024, to stage a protest against the coalition government’s agricultural policies as they convoy with tractors and other agricultural vehicles in Dusseldorf, Germany. (Photo by Kadir Ilboga/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Farmers across Europe are taking to the streets in their tractors once again to protest a host of issues, including rising agricultural costs and shrinking profits, the costs of environmental regulation, and potential trade agreements that could undercut the European market. As Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo observed earlier this month, farmers face a “lasagna” of problems. And amid the renewed protests, European lawmakers are weighing their climate policy aims alongside the interests of a politically potent bloc as elections later this year loom large.

Farmer protests have become a more frequent feature in Europe over the last few years. The Netherlands, for example, was the site of particularly large demonstrations in 2022. But since the beginning of this year, protests have spread throughout the European Union (EU), reaching Spain, France, Greece, Belgium, Poland, Germany, Italy, Romania, and the Czech Republic, with long columns of tractors clogging the streets of cities ranging from Brussels, Barcelona, and Prague. In France, farmers tried to create a barricade of tractors around Paris by blocking the roads leading into the City of Love. In Berlin, tractors lined up at the Brandenburg Gate. In Rome, a farmer convoy rolled past the Colosseum.

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  1. Brett

    LuK - something that surprised me when I began to deal with regulators was how much they hate small business. I figured they'd like the little guy and want to focus on regs on corporations which makes all the difference in terms of overall impact on climate, economy, consumers, etc. But they seem to view it as corporations should have some special rights to abuse everyone with regulators all that stands in the way (and the regulators will draw the line, decide what's abuse) whereas small businesses, well, they're out of regulatory control, so they're especially dangerous no matter what they are doing or not doing.

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  2. Mary Stine

    LUK..yes, the European farmers' concerns are very valid. I lived through a similar situation in my childhood on a farm in Missouri. My parents and grandparents had practiced soil conservation, including letting a portion of land go fallow, they'd followed all the health and safety protocols advised by the government. But they were unprepared for those same government leaders to sanction Big Ag's real agenda...Big Profit.
    The local farmer's markets began to disappear as the government allowed giant corporations to truck their milk, eggs and bread thousands of miles across country and still get to trumpet it as "fresh"! The slim profit in my dad's cattle disappeared when cheap South American beef showed up. The health inspections my dad had taken care to pass for his hog production were never demanded of the giant hog "farms" now polluting the air in every Midwestern state. The increasing incidences of extreme weather also fostered a record number of insect pests, along with other environmental damage. Into that maelstrom crept Big Ag chemicals with their seductive promises, never mentioning that their wonder drugs would damage not only the pests, but the human applicators and forever weaken the soil and pollute the water.
    Many European farmers, especially the French, have been trying valiantly for decades to maintain healthier soil and animals, using traditional agriculture techniques. Things like French cheese and Italian proscuitto depend on the animals that produce them having an open air, pastoral existence. That doesn't come cheap, nor should it be cheapened.
    If real farming by real people is to continue, a better conversation needs to happen soon between farmers and policy makers. Policy makers need to show and provide proof that they are not in the pocket of Big Ag, and journalists need to be vigilant about exposing those that are. Otherwise, Europeans will be in the mess we're in here in the states, where food stuffs stripped of most nutrients get to be touted as "healthy", and where over 39% of us are officially obese..and likely to get diabetes!

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    Gibby

    This has been a constant this decade. Those in charge not thinking through the consequences of their policies. Pandemic helped me see this clearly

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  4. BDM

    LUK: Yes, I think the farmers concerns are largely valid. And how could anyone suggest that regulators, government regulators who almost always view whatever they're regulating with a near total myopia, could ever better think through the effects (externalities) of their proposed regulations?

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    Brian

    A few commenters seem unable to believe that I won't vote for Biden as the only way to keep Trump from getting a second term. A news items above reminds me of one of the reasons: another round of student debt cancellation, which the WH announced with pride as a positive from a continuing set of executive actions. I could support some of these actions if targeted toward true hardship cases. But the action he signed last year knowing that the SC would stop it included forgiveness for families making up to $250K. That's a long way from hardship. I could also support them if there at least some effort to force schools to have skin in the game, with required graduation and job placement criteria. That wouldn't be hard and yet they're not even trying. Instead they're sending a message to young people that they're a victim (of whom or what?), and that the govt is there to backstop their bad decisions. Meanwhile, the student debt game continues untouched, and you and I are paying for it. Of course one could say this is just a policy disagreement I have with Biden, but they're continuing to drive a mentality that encourages victimhood and dependence, and both of those keep growing, so this is far more than just a policy agreement for me.

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    1. MathewA

      Yep, I would support reform to the system. Make student loan debt dischargeable in bankruptcy if the person is insolvent AND projected to stay that way (not a doctor or lawyer that just graduated and will go on to be just fine).

      But I also definitely think schools should have some skin in the game. Maybe think twice before letting that gender studies major wrack up $100k in debt.

      Finally, schools should have to show students expected wages for whatever major they are perusing BEFORE they take on that debt.

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      1. Philip.R.M.Hunt

        That is such an uncompassionate attitude toward those poor gender studies majors, who had no way of knowing that their major would be unmarketable. They were just following their passion! Why should that be punished for that? ...OK, I cannot keep up this pretense. Yeah, maybe in exchange for some loan forgiveness people with unmarketable degrees should agree to go to high schools and give motivational talks in the spirit of Chris Farley - "Don't get a useless degree or you will be like me - living in a van down by the river, eating government cheese."

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        Brian

        I don’t understand why none of these common sense reforms are even mentioned. It’s a slap in the face to all of us who followed the rules.

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    2. Payette

      Well said!

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      Retired Prosecutor

      Victimhood has always been a key Dem theme. The real pity is that now major parts of the GOP have adopted it.

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      1. Dougaj2

        What took me (us...fill in your own number) 6 decades to accumulate after paying for college is viewed as greedy hoarding.

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          Retired Prosecutor

          I paid off my undergraduate loans while enjoying a princely salary in the U.S. military..

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          1. Philip.R.M.Hunt

            Similar story here, but I did it with a gender studies degree! The Navy paid for my undergraduate degree, and I got a huge signing bonus in my junior year when I got accepted into the Navy Nuclear Propulsion program. OK, I am lying about the gender studies degree. It was an electrical engineering degree. I don't think gender studies existed in the 80s, but I probably would not have noticed if it did.

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        Brian

        Yep, it's contagious. They got theirs, now it's time for me to get mine. That's exactly what people with big student debt will be saying 5 and 10 years from now. It's a terrible precedent and a shiny new entitlement program.

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          Retired Prosecutor

          Going forward, why in heaven’s name would a student loan borrower feel obligated to pay off his/her loans? The precedent has been set. Just wait for the next vote-buying “forgiveness” scheme.

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            Brian

            But hey, we’re only $34T in debt so they’re feeling a little extra generous.

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  6. Trichwages

    LUK: not sure. I don’t understand how the agricultural sector is organized in countries within the EU (and it’s possible that neither do the policy makers in the EU who may be working from incorrect organizational assumptions). For instance, is this a case, as in the US, where individually owned farms contract with conglomerates for their yield but all of the burdens (costs, depressed prices, etc.) are passed down rather than absorbed by the contracting entity? Or is it a whole different ball of wax?

    None of the people quoted help much in providing clarity, either. The term Family and individually owned farm may be technically true but it seems to be trotted out when conglomerates want to keep some benefit for themselves that Family and individually owned farms will never see or, alternatively don’t object to additional costs because they won’t be paying them. Individual farmers usually complain when they are being asked to bear an unfair burden. Most people reporting on these issues may even have faulty assumptions of their own in my experience. The “marketplace” is not structured/organized identically in all places.

    Anyway, knowing how things are organized makes it easier to figure out the who/whom of it all.

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    1. Dhafvens

      Your right that "family farm" covers a lot of ground. I have family who own a farm of 6000 acres between father, two sons and now a grandson, which is pretty substantial. And statistics like the ones below suggest that the "family farm" ratio is similar or greater in the US.

      https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2020/01/23/look-americas-family-farms

      On the other hand, the 70+% under 10 hectares/ 24 acres is a very significant difference. Some statistics I found give a comparable low-end statistc that the 50% of smallest farms in the US have an average size of ~80 acres. So there's a lot of subsidy floating around to keep them small European farms viable.

      https://downloads.usda.library.cornell.edu/usda-esmis/files/5712m6524/bk129p580/2z10z2698/fnlo0223.pdf

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      1. Trichwages

        Thanks for this. Another commenter here also delved into the complexity of the EU due to the differences across member states as to those issues as well.

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  7. Chris D

    Formatting nitpicky question: would it be possible to get a paragraph break between the bulleted items in quick hits? It would make for easier reading.

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    Retired Prosecutor

    I don’t want to further contribute to anyone’s depression, but here is the latest survey: Haley trounces Biden 58 to 42.

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      John N.

      Even more depressing: RCP has Trump leading Haley 74.8% to 16.9%, a 57.9% lead.

      So Haley will never get to face Biden.

      https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/president/republican-primary/2024/national

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        Retired Prosecutor

        Yet, doubly depressing.

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    Ed

    LUK: European farmers are a privileged caste that still has to run a positive cash flow to survive, but whose costs are rising due to government action while their returns are limited by government action. They are zoo animals who are being underfed: of course they raise a ruckus!

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  10. BEE

    "Populist parties" can mean a myriad of different things and I don't think it explains much.

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