{"id":305064,"date":"2024-02-26T20:12:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T19:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=305064"},"modified":"2024-02-26T20:12:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T19:12:27","slug":"the-great-european-farmer-revolt-jilted-turning-on-the-greens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=305064","title":{"rendered":"The Great European Farmer Revolt: Jilted, Turning On The Greens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From The Forbes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Tilak Doshi<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
German peasants war, 1514-1526, german peasants’ war, great peasants’ revolt, farmer war, farmer\u00a0… [+]
UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP VIA GETTY IMAGES<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Coming to a crescendo over the past few months, widespread farmers\u2019 protests<\/a> in Europe have escalated \u2013 across the width and breadth of the continent, from Sweden to Spain, Poland to Portugal \u2014 since they first started in the Netherlands Holland in October 2019. As tractors take over the streets and highways in wave after wave of protests, the farmers have paralyzed major transport arteries and besieged Berlin, Paris and Brussels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More lastingly, they have changed the political landscape in key EU countries such as Netherlands. With the shock win in March by the populist Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB), putting it ahead of the governing party in the Senate, the farmers became an important part of the equation in the country\u2019s political future. Major gains are expected for what the legacy media calls the \u201cfar right\u201d and \u201canti-Europe\u201d parties in the\u00a0upcoming European parliament<\/a>\u00a0elections. The farming interest has suddenly climbed to the top of the political agenda in state capitals as well as Brussels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why have European farmers \u2013 until recently, the most coddled and protected part of the continent\u2019s body politic as it emerged from the ashes of World War II \u2014 turned against their own governments and Brussels-based benefactors? Is it no more than a \u201ctantrum of the ridiculously privileged?\u201d, asks The Economist<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europe\u2019s Farmers Betrayed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The picture of the proud French farmer \u2013 half of whose income came from EU subsidies and direct payments \u2014 as the repository of a bucolic wine-and-cheese rural culture has long been a treasured part of Europe\u2019s identity since it adopted the\u00a0Common Agricultural Policy<\/a>\u00a0in 1962. Agriculture (including forestry and fishing)\u00a0accounts for just 1.6% of GDP<\/a>. Yet it absorbs a third of the EU\u2019s total budget and costs an estimated \u20ac65 billion annually for direct payments, \u201cagricultural market measures\u201d and \u201crural development\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like most government policies, CAP was implemented with the best of intentions: improving productivity, ensuring a \u201cfair standard of living\u201d for farmers, \u201cstabilizing\u201d markets, establishing a secure supply chain with \u201creasonable\u201d prices, \u201charmonizing competition rules across all countries\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, as usual with all big government programs, the unintended consequences of an extensive system of price and market controls put in place to guarantee farmers their accustomed standard of living effectively made them wards of state<\/a>, \u201cas grand an experiment in socialist management as anything Lenin was ever able to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European Commission, the EU\u2019s executive arm, has been hell-bent in pursuing its virtue-signaling decades-long experiment with global climate leadership<\/a>. With the best of intentions \u2013 what could better be intended than \u201csaving the planet\u201d from a climate crisis? \u2014 the EU adopted its Farm to Fork<\/a> strategy as part of the Green Deal to make agriculture consistent with being \u201ccarbon-neutral\u201d by 2050. EU bureaucrats assured us that European agriculture \u2013 a significant source of greenhouse gases \u2013would be rendered more \u201csustainable\u201d, \u201cenvironmentally-friendly\u201d and \u201cbiodiverse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europe\u2019s \u2018wards of state\u2019 farmers have turned out in fury as another favored constituency \u2013 the European Greens \u2014 has gained ascendancy and increasingly squeezed farmers\u2019 standards of living. Amid fierce resistance from farmers<\/a>, Brussel\u2019s bureaucrats have been forced into their first significant policy climbdown from ever-escalating climate regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early February, the EC was forced to scale back<\/a> on an array of proposed mandates, taxes, subsidies and disinvestments for promoting \u201csustainable\u201d farming in an imagined post-fossil fuel \u201cgreen\u201d future. It dropped the 30% reduction target on greenhouse gas emissions from farming by 2040 compared to 2015; it reversed its quota to halve pesticide use by 2030; and it will allow more land for agricultural use instead of forcing 4 percent of the land to lie fallow \u201cto boost biodiversity and soil quality.\u201d Despite investing in lab-grown meat initiatives<\/a>, it also agreed to stop advising EU citizens to eat less meat. In both Germany<\/a> and France<\/a>, governments delayed cuts to subsidies or planned increases in taxes on diesel for agricultural use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have The Farmers Turned \u201cFar Right\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europe\u2019s mainly left-of-center governments have long been under the thrall of green parties and their young, urban constituents. In Europe\u2019s epicenter Germany, Joschka Fischer, a leading figure in the German Greens party since the 1970s, was sworn in as minister of energy and environment in Germany\u2019s state of Hesse in December 1985. He served as the foreign minister and as the vice-chancellor of Germany in the cabinet of Gerhard Schr\u00f6der from 1998 to 2005. The Green party attained its high point as part of the current Chancellor Olaf Scholz\u2019s ruling coalition. Economy Minister and Green party leader Robert Habeck nursed ambition<\/a>s to lead his Green party to victory in the 2025 general election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But much had changed by mid-2023. The DeutschlandTrend<\/a> monthly survey conducted in June, measured voter support for Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland at 18%, putting it on a par with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats. A YouGov poll<\/a> published one week later (June 9th<\/sup>) found that 20% of German voters would give their vote to the AfD, making it the second-strongest party behind the centre-right CDU (28%) and ahead of Scholz\u2019s SPD (19%). The resurgence of AfD, inevitably dubbed \u201cfar right\u201d by the mainstream media, has been primarily at the expense of the Greens which have been sent into free fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rightward shift in politics is not restricted to Germany. According to a report<\/a> based on polling data published in January by the European Council on Foreign Relations, the 2024 European Parliament elections (in June) will see \u201ca major shift to the right in many countries, with populist radical right parties gaining votes and seats across the EU, and centre-left and green parties losing votes and seats.\u201d It warns that \u201canti-European populists\u201d will likely top the polls in nine member states (Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Slovakia) and come second or third in a further nine countries (Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Sweden).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europe\u2019s Great Farmer Revolt may prove as consequential to the regional political order as the anti-nuclear and anti-Vietnam war movements of the 1970s. Farmers have emerged as the single greatest challenge to the green agenda in Europe as their livelihoods face ever tighter climate regulations, higher costs and competition from cheap imports from Ukraine and non-EU countries. The next European parliament could block laws on Europe\u2019s green deal and take a harder line on immigration and support for Ukraine. Populist leaders such as France\u2019s Marine Le Pen (National Rally), Germany\u2019s Alice Weidel (AfD) and the Netherland\u2019s Geert Wilders (Party for Freedom) all express support for the cause of European farmers. The left-of-center mainstream media sees the farmers\u2019 protests \u201cplaying into the hands\u201d of such politicians \u201cwho thrive on grassroots grumbling against the metropolitan elites\u201d (here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europe\u2019s Peasants and History<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The “crisis of the Late Middle Ages<\/a>“, known as Peasant Revolts, were often bloody uprisings and rebellions by peasants in the European countryside against the church, nobles and kings between 1300 and 1500. These rebellions were caused by some combination of declining incomes, rising inflation, taxation, famine, plague, war, and religious differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five centuries later, the European peasantry has once again been goaded to fury. Images of sprayed manure<\/a> in the entrances of government buildings and select politicians\u2019 houses and a Paris under siege with its supermarket shelves empty of fresh produce<\/a> have gone viral on Twitter\/X and other alternative media. The mainstream media, concerned as it is by \u201cthe inexorable rise of far-right nationalists\u201d, has largely muted<\/a> such inconvenient images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can European farmers reverse their ruling elites\u2019 mantra of \u201cnet zero by 2050\u201d and devotion to global climate leadership? Or will this just be merely a temporary stalling of the green agenda, a tactical concession by liberal politicians and Brussels-based bureaucrats to farmers\u2019 demands for relief from ever-tightening EU environmental restrictions? Only time will tell but hope remains that the Great Farmer Revolt will bring some semblance of rationality to Europe\u2019s climate policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Follow me on\u00a0<\/em>Twitter<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Tilak<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tilak Doshi<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have worked in the oil and gas sector as an economist in both private industry and in think tanks, in Asia, the Middle East and the US over the past 25 years. I focus on global energy developments from the perspective of Asian countries that remain large markets for oil, gas and coal. I have written extensively on the areas of economic development, environment and energy economics. My publications include \u201cSingapore in a Post-Kyoto World: Energy, Environment and the Economy\u201d published by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (2015). I won the 1984 Robert S. McNamara Research Fellow award of the World Bank and received my Ph.D. in Economics in 1992.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coming to a crescendo over the past few months,\u00a0widespread farmers\u2019 protests\u00a0in Europe have escalated \u2013 across the width and breadth of the continent, from Sweden to Spain, Poland to Portugal \u2014 since they first started in the Netherlands Holland in October 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":305070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Coming to a crescendo over the past few months,\u00a0widespread farmers\u2019 protests\u00a0in Europe have escalated \u2013 across the width and breadth of the continent, from Sweden to Spain, Poland to Portugal \u2014 since they first started in the Netherlands Holland in Octobe","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691827226,691818583,691819303,691826205,691827225,691823322,691818154],"class_list":{"0":"post-305064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-eu-subsidies","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european-commission","11":"tag-farmer-protest","12":"tag-farmer-citizen-movement-bbb","13":"tag-green-deal","14":"tag-net-zero","16":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2GF0fVoJawAACVF9-1.jpeg?fit=2048%2C1292&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1hmo","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":294454,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=294454","url_meta":{"origin":305064,"position":0},"title":"Why German Farmers Are Protesting: They Refuse To Be The Government\u2019s Cash Cow","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/01\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The air is getting awfully thin for Germany\u2019s Socialist\/Green government. Never in postwar history has a ruling government been so unpopular, and there\u2019s a reason for that.","rel":"","context":"In \"farmers and truckers\"","block_context":{"text":"farmers and truckers","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=farmers-and-truckers"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0GDfjIIEXsAA4vEd.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0GDfjIIEXsAA4vEd.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0GDfjIIEXsAA4vEd.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0GDfjIIEXsAA4vEd.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0GDfjIIEXsAA4vEd.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":250073,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=250073","url_meta":{"origin":305064,"position":1},"title":"EU War on Agriculture Pushback Protests Spread","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"29\/03\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Emboldened by the recent\u00a0BoerBurgerBeweging\u00a0electoral victory in Netherlands, Farmers in Slovenia, Germany and Flanders are staging large protests against the EU\u2019s war on agriculture.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-1212.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-1212.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-1212.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-1212.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-1212.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":294575,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=294575","url_meta":{"origin":305064,"position":2},"title":"Millions of Germans Rise Up Against Fascist WEF Agenda \u2013 Media Blackout","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/01\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"German farmers have taken over the streets of Munich and Berlin, demanding their country\u2019s WEF-infiltrated government grow a spine and stop catering to Klaus Schwab\u2019s every demand.","rel":"","context":"In \"Fascism\"","block_context":{"text":"Fascism","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=fascism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0Screenshot-2024-01-11-142936.png?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0Screenshot-2024-01-11-142936.png?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0Screenshot-2024-01-11-142936.png?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0Screenshot-2024-01-11-142936.png?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0Screenshot-2024-01-11-142936.png?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":207287,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=207287","url_meta":{"origin":305064,"position":3},"title":"Dutch Farmers mass protest with tractors against regulations that will reduce farms and food","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/07\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Don\u2019t wait for your government Newspeak channel to tell you On Twitter\u00a0#Netherlands,\u00a0massive protests are underway. Farmers have been told to shut farms to reduce nitrogen emissions and they\u2019ve taken to the streets. (It\u2019s not clear if this is purely about fertilizer runoff, or climate change as well.) The word is\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image-40.png?fit=578%2C589&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image-40.png?fit=578%2C589&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image-40.png?fit=578%2C589&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":248961,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=248961","url_meta":{"origin":305064,"position":4},"title":"Netherlands Votes NO to the Climate Activist War on Farmers","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"22\/03\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A new political party which represents farmers who are fed up with\u00a0police shooting at their kids\u00a0and threatened evictions for daring to work the land has won a \u201cmonster\u201d endorsement from Dutch voters.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-878.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-878.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-878.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-878.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-878.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":246846,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=246846","url_meta":{"origin":305064,"position":5},"title":"Farmers Blockade EU Capital to Fight Fertiliser Restrictions","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/03\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Declaring war on European farmers, at a time when food prices are rising out of control, because of climate targets and concerns about wilderness protection, is a recipe for disaster.\u00a0","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-173.png?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-173.png?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-173.png?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-173.png?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-173.png?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=305064"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305072,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305064\/revisions\/305072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/305070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=305064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=305064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=305064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}