Farmers again took to the streets of Madrid on Sunday, March 17, to demand changes in EU agricultural policy and an end to the UN’s Agenda 2030 environmental program. About 80 tractors drove through the heart of the capital to the Ministry of Agriculture, where police were guarding the doors and the roof of the building. But the protest was completely calm and peaceful.
Farmers continue to demand more flexibility, less stringent environmental regulations, and lighter bureaucracy from the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which decides on the requirements for farmers’ subsidies.
In solidarity with consumers, the farmers also delivered a donation of 27 five-liter bottles of olive oil to the charity Messengers Of Peace since, as they told the media, the increased price of the Spanish kitchen staple now means that “only people with a very high purchasing power” could enjoy it.
Regarding the price of olive oil, which jumped 130% in 2023, farmers put the blame squarely on environmental regulations. “They do not let us grow, we cannot collect olives, the price rises, but it is not due to drought, it is because they do not let us take care of the fields,” one farmer told El Debate.
Many farmers came to the protest with their families.
“Children need to see this and defend what is theirs. They are the future,” said one farmer.
Another told El Debate, “My daughter studies enology [the study of wines] and at university they are taught the Agenda 2030 to the point that they try to blame farmers for this situation.”
Other farmers complained that more stringent requirements for animal welfare and the emphasis on animal rights coming from Brussels were undermining farming and the care of Europe’s landscapes.
“Animals have no rights, they have their owners,” said one farmer. “You can’t protect animals more than people, they know what they have to do by their nature.”
Another highlighted the role that animal grazing plays in removing heavy brush that fuels forest fires, stating that without animals “Spain would burn.”
Luis Cortés, coordinator of the Union of Unions of Farmers and Ranchers which organized the protest, told El Debate that farmers want the Common Agricultural Policy “to be agrarian,” not environmental.
The minor changes to the CAP announced from Brussels last Friday have not satisfied farmers who plan to continue to raise their voices.
“We will return, nobody is listening to us,” reiterated one of the participants.
