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We've been supporting Europe's farmers from damaging environmental regulations. Here's a sample of some of our work in this area.
Europe's farmers face an enormous threat: Elites across the EU who are weighing them down with endless environmental regulations. Both national governments and EU bodies are pushing for ever more restrictions on how farmers can farm - all under the misguided aim of making farmers pay the price for reaching Net Zero. From nitrates regulations to diseal restrictions, rewilding directives to the transformation of farms into carbon sinks, this is not just an industry that is under threat - but a way of life.
But Europe's farmers are not taking this lying down. We are proud to support a range of farmers who are taking matters into their own hands and leading protests, forming political parties, and making alliances to ensure the rural way of life is not killed off by thoughtless EU elites.
Below is a series of resources, events, videos and publications that we are proud to have produced to help give voice to Europe's farmers.
Video: Why are Europe's farmers protesting?
Across Europe, farmers have been protesting a range of measures that threaten their livelihoods. MCC Brussels has been speaking to farmers from across the continent to identify the reasons for their anger. One theme constantly recurs: the EU's environmental agenda, which is being implemented without care or concern for the impact it has on farmers. Farming is vital to our food security, and the farming way of life is crucial to Europe's identity. Supporting farmers is something we all have a stake in, and we urge you to get involved in the broad pushback against these anti-farming policies.
Report: The dangers of carbon farming
Under the guise of environmentalism, a strange transformation is taking place. Farmers are no longer encouraged to farm crops, rear animals, or produce animal products. Instead, they have a new product to farm: carbon credits.
An unholy alliance of big finance and environmentally-minded NGOs and bureaucrats have identified farms as a source of a new, precious commodity: a license to emit carbon. The only problem is that in order to produce these credits, the farmers must cease agricultural production. The logic of this process is brutally simple, but potentially devastating for agriculture.
Video statements: Why European farmers are coming together
Watch and share the videos of the speeches from the participants of our event which brought together farmers and advocates from across Europe.
Watch the videos here, here and here.
Event and protest: Fight back against the EU’s war on farming!
The agrarian fightback against the EU’s anti-farmer policies is gaining momentum. Recent months have seen protests from farmers across Europe. Now, it is the turn of French farmers, who head to the European Parliament on Wednesday 24th January to protest against tax hikes and the increased costs for fuel and animal feed.
Join us to stand in solidarity with farmers across Europe and hear directly from the French farmers who have had enough of the unholy alliance between the EU and national governments which sets out to destroy the rural way of life.
Read statements from European farmers here
Video report: Germany's farmers lead the fightback
MCC Brussels reports from Berlin, where thousands of tractors and tens of thousands of protesters brought the city to standstill to deliver a clear message: NO to the endless environmental regulations which are destroying our farmers.
The protests, culminating in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, was broadcast across the world. Over 5,000 tractors and 30,000 people – including hauliers, restaurant owners, hunters and thousands of ordinary German people – were involved in the protest against the ongoing attack on farming and the rural way of life experienced by the people of Germany. A survey carried out by one of Berlin’s leading newspapers found that 65 per cent of those questioned stood on the side of the farmers.
Report: The Silent War on Farming: How EU policies are destroying our agriculture
MCC Brussels' landmark report examines in detail how the EU's policies around nitrogen emissions, habitats and carbon sinks have driven farmers to the brink. Rather than promoting low prices and productive farmers, agriculture now promotes lowering emissions, reducing nitrogen, rewilding, habitats and a host of other concerns. As part of this transformation, the report traces the outsized influence of environmental ideology and environmental NGOs. Farmers – who play a central role not just in feeding Europe but in Europe’s very identity – have by contrast very little influence in the corridors of Brussels. But farmers have begun a fightback — and this report illustrates and champions this resistance. It shows that with determination, organisation and public support, the outcome of the silent war on farming is not a foregone conclusion.
Also available in French and in Spanish.
Event and debate: The EU's War on Farming
Our event featuring farmers, legal specialists and our own researcher and author of our report was a chance to bring the debate on farming to the heart of Brussels. It asked: How have European elites become so detached from the reality of food and farming? Why are farmers singled out for such stringent environmental regulations? Can we find a balance between climate protection and feeding the population? Is a genuine pushback beginning, and should we champion it? With Daisy and Gunter Klaasen, poultry farmers, Turnhouts Vennengebied region; Richard Schenk, research fellow, MCC Brussels; author MCC Brussels’ report, ‘The EU’s War on Farming’; and Fernand Keuleneer, specialist, EU agricultural law; attorney, Keuleneer advocaten-avocats.
Catch up with the livestream here.
Short film: The Silent War on Farming
The EU is engaged in a silent war against Europe's farmers. In this hard-hitting video, MCC Brussels examines how climate policies have pushed farmers to the brink. With testimony from two livestock farmers who's livelihood, and that of their children, has been imperilled by nitrogen regulations, comment from the author of a new report, and political analysis from MCC Brussel's executive director. Featuring: Daisy and Gunter Klaasen, poultry farmers, Turnhouts Vennengebied region; Frank Füredi, executive director, MCC Brussels; Richard Schenk, research fellow, MCC Brussels; author MCC Brussels’ report, ‘The EU’s War on Farming’
