(LifeSiteNews) — Last Friday saw a massive protest in the Belgian and European Union capital of Brussels. An estimated 2700 tractors brought the city to a standstill in an action organized to protest against the ruin of their livelihood – and ours – by Net Zero diktat. This time the reason for the destruction of farming is nitrogen pollution.
Organized by the Boerenbond, which is “the professional organization for every agricultural entrepreneur in Flanders and East Belgium,” the protests aim to halt measures being debated by the Flemish regional government to limit nitrogen pollution.
These policies were initially discussed last summer. Yet with discussions ongoing, the farmers have taken to the streets to protest at measures they describe in stark terms:
‘It’s an economic and social catastrophe,’ said Nele Kempeneers, a spokesperson for Belgian farmers’ association Boerenbond, one of the unions that organized the protest. ‘A lot of farms will have to limit the amount of animals that they keep, or simply close down.’
It is an issue which pits Green Agenda policies against the adequate provision of food. “No future without farmers,” read one banner, neatly reminiscent of the slogans which accompanied the recent farmer protests in the Netherlands.
These government measures are simply one factor in a wider crisis in agriculture, according to Marnix von Mello, a former Belgian dairy farmer, who said:
Every day, an average of two farmers throw in the towel. Because not nearly as many young people take up the trade, the number of farms is systematically decreasing year after year. There are plenty of reasons to stay away from the agricultural sector: strict environmental regulations, poor prices, uncertain investments. ‘Today there is no clear framework in which farmers can do business.’
Marnix closed his farm when he received a “red notice” from the government – over his nitrogen pollution. His empty farm joins the 14 percent of Belgian farms which have closed in the last 13 years, falling from 27,253 to 23,321 nationwide.
The Boerenbond (Farmer’s Union) is not alone in their opposition to these proposals, however:
The agri-food sector, represented by sector federations BCZ (Belgian Confederation of the Dairy Industry), BFA (Belgian Feed Association), FEBEV (Federation of Belgian Meat) and FENAVIAN (Federation of the Processing of Meat and other proteins), supports the Tractor Action of Friday 3 March.
These food producers are not demanding that the Belgian government abandons its aims to reduce nitrogen pollution. They claim they seek an agreement which allows them to comply – “…without creating a socioeconomic carnage, either in agriculture or in the agri-food industry.”
That is why BCZ, BFA, FEBEV and FENAVIAN, just like the agricultural organizations, ask for a concrete, realistic and feasible policy framework that offers a future for our local food production and gives legal certainty to our farmers. Because we desperately need our farmers.
The trouble with this reasonable request is that the pace of these Green Agenda reforms appears designed to aggravate the decline in food production, both in Belgium and elsewhere. September 2022 saw a protest in the Czech capital of Prague, over the impact of the European Union’s Green New Deal. According to Martin Pýcha, chairman of the Agricultural Union, the measures will result in food scarcity.
If we accept the new policy of agricultural support distribution as planned by the current government and try at all costs to implement the ambitious goals of the Green Deal for Europe in such a short time until 2030, European food will become an expensive luxury that will definitely not be for everyone.
In the Netherlands, another protest is planned for the 17th of march to maintain the immense momentum gained by the Farmer Citizen Movement. Dutch farmers, outraged at the proposed and forced closure of up to a third of farms nationwide, are seeking to protect their overwhelmingly owner-operated farming sector which, until now, has seen the Netherlands become the second largest exporter of food worldwide.
Their Farmer Citizen Movement (BBB) political party is polling strongly ahead of the Dutch Provincial elections of March 15. This party based not only on farming but on the citizenship of “neighborly values.” A human scale community is once more fighting back against a technocratic class determined to reduce them – and us – from self reliance to a miserable dependence.
Their impact is already being felt in Dutch politics, with technocrat and World Economic Forum favorite Mark Rutte’s proposed nitrogen bill now losing support. Their example shows how a coordinated fightback, based on strong community bonds, can fight and overcome a posthuman and mass scale agenda seeking to impose a social order for which no one has voted.
These protests are succeeding. As one article warned last year, they are likely to be seen in the United States, and in every country which pursues the destabilizing and destructive Net Zero agenda. Show your support for the Belgian and Dutch farmers. They are not just fighting for their livelihoods, but for a future with a human face. They have shown us how to stand up to the machine, and to win.