Furious Farmers Use Thousands of Tractors to Block Traffic in Protest of New Climate Restrictions
Hundreds of tractors converged on Brussels on Friday, driven by angry farmers protesting a plan to cut nitrate levels.
The demonstration created major traffic disruption in Belgium’s capital city.
The BB farmers union and several others combined efforts to gather more than 2,700 farm vehicles, according to Brussels police.
Several major roads in Brussels were closed and police warned that disruptions could last until the end of the day.
They recommended that people use public transportation instead of personal cars.
The Flemish regional government is struggling to find a deal to cut nitrate pollution over farmers’ objections that it will put many of them out of business.
Farmers from Belgium’s northern region of Flanders drove thousands of tractors into Brussels in a protest against a new regional government plan to limit nitrogen emissions https://t.co/rnzGbI4zY5 pic.twitter.com/hL7L0GxvgQ
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 3, 2023
Farmers also claim that their trade has to make much deeper cuts than industry and they want to see a more equitable spread.
“In the future, I want to have the possibility to continue my dad’s farm,” said farmer Brendt Beyens.
“But right now I feel like the possibility of that happening is slowly shrinking and it’s getting nearly impossible and the is future looking very tough.”
Farmers from Belgium’s northern region of Flanders drove thousands of tractors into Brussels on Friday in a protest against a new regional government plan to limit nitrogen emissions. https://t.co/1Y8RVQDUss
— Reuters Science News (@ReutersScience) March 3, 2023
Negotiations have dragged on for weeks and weakened the regional government of northern Belgium to breaking point.
The debate over agricultural pollution is increasingly turning into a political issue in many of the EU’s farming nations.
It will be a focal point of Dutch elections in two weeks’ time, as intensive farming has put environmentalists against the agricultural industry.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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