Farmer’s Defense Force vice president Jos Ubels poses for a portrait at his farm in Anderen, Northern Netherlands, Monday, March 18, 2024. Ubels feels that everything from overbearing bureaucrats insisting when farmers should sow or harvest, imposing excessive restrictions on fertilizer and manure use and unfair international competition condoned by the European Union have created a potent mix that has driven him away from mainstream politics.
In a video from another protest, in front of burning tires and pallets, FDF leader Mark van den Oever said two politicians made him sick to his stomach, saying they would “soon be at the center of attention.” The FDF denies this was a threat of physical violence. Yet, despite agriculture’s strategic importance, the EU acknowledges that farmers earn about 40% less than non-farm workers, while 80% of support goes to a privileged 20% of farmers. Many of the bloc’s 8.7 million farm workers are close to or below the poverty line.
And then there’s the war next door. After Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the EU granted tariff-free access for, many of them exempt from the strict environmental standards the bloc enforces on its own producers. Imports surged from 7 billion euros in 2021 to 13 billion euros the following year, causing gluts and undercutting farmers,
That’s now changed. Once, billboards with the cry, “Save our farmers!” would have come from his party; now, they bear the logo of the far-right Flemish Interest, predicted by polls to become the biggest party in Belgium in June.