Last Friday, the small mountainous nation of Slovenia experienced protests similar to those experienced in the Netherlands last summer. Approximately 5,000 Slovenian farmers took to the nation’s streets in a manner similar to the Dutch farmers to protest onerous environmental policies implemented by various Slovenian jurisdictions.
The Dutch protests were far larger, but Slovenia is a nation with a population of approximately 2.1 million. The Trade Union of Slovenian Farmers promises an escalation of the protests should the various localities fail to address their concerns. Protests were observed in at least two dozen cities across the nation.
The Slovenian farmers have a variety of complaints, mostly about draconian environmental measures being instituted by various governments.
“We estimate there were at least 5,000 farmers participating in the protests or supporting us,” said Anton Medved of the trade union.
The farmers appear to be most upset about a recent Constitutional Court ruling that severely restricts the use of pesticides in a water protection area around the capital, Ljubljana.
Farmers are also annoyed, as in the Netherlands, about recent European Union guidelines on farming, which tie the hands of farmers on the use of fertilizers — especially in wetland areas.
According to Medved, farmers’ needs are being “sacrificed for the environmental experiments of activists and civil servants.… Green countryside and national prosperity are the results of the work of farmers. We will not let that be destroyed.”
Farmers are looking to the government to scale back on environmental measures, most notably the amount of areas deemed to be Natura 2000 sites. The Natura 2000 network describes itself as “a network of protected areas covering Europe’s most valuable and threatened species and habitats.”
The tiny nation has 355 Natura sites covering approximately one-third of Slovenia’s total territory. Dutch farmers were similarly upset about an excess of protected habitat areas where nitrogen fertilizers could not be used.
Although Medved would like for the protests in Slovenia to be “apolitical” in nature, the farmers are being cheered on by center-right forces in opposition to the current government.
“The purpose of the protest is to represent the interests of farmers,” Medved said. “We expect [government] will receive us within ten days. If not, we will step up our activities.”
Many of the farmers’ issues are local in nature, including wolf and bear predation. There has been a steep increase in wolf and brown bear attacks along the nation’s border with Austria. In the Carinthia region, attacks on livestock have increased fourfold from the previous year. While farmers in both Austria and Slovenia are allowed to shoot wolves, they must prove that a wolf killed their livestock to receive any compensation.
Slovenian farmer Matija Juvan recently lost 17 sheep but didn’t receive anywhere near full compensation for his loss.
“I only got paid the damage for four of the 17 killed sheep,” Juvan said.
Just as in the American Northwest, NGOs such as the World Wildlife Fund are complicating the matter by arguing that wolves are good for the environment because they thin the deer herd, allowing trees to grow unfettered.
“The young trees often cannot grow up at all as they are eaten by game (including deer) beforehand,” said Christian Pichler of WWF Austria, “and the wolf would help here in reducing the high number of game.”
Whether it’s wolves and bears or burdensome environmental policies, the farmers want common-sense measures from the government that won’t kill their industry.
“We demand the implementation of climate and environmental measures set down in the strategic plan for Common Agriculture Policy in a manner that is useful, viable and sustainable,” Medved said.
The farmers are also looking for a decrease in the amount of government red tape involved with doing their jobs. They also demand that food security be given a higher priority than nebulous climate concerns. In addition, they would like to see direct payments be indexed to coincide with inflation.
Agriculture Minister Irena Šinko met with a group of four farmers and claimed to be “on the farmers’ side.” But at the same time she also cautioned that “some of the demands cannot be resolved overnight.”
Thus continues the globalist war against farmers. The world’s food supply is far less important to global elites than meaningless climate focused policies, which, ultimately, do nothing for the climate.
