Juno News - February 01, 2024


Farmer Protest TAKES OVER all of Europe!


Episode Stats

Length

7 minutes

Words per Minute

167.354

Word Count

1,258

Sentence Count

2

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 massive farmers protests have continued all throughout europe over the past several weeks
00:00:10.740 with no sign of slowing down and now the world's attention has turned to brussels
00:00:14.820 where farmers have converged on the european union headquarters the farmers are in belgium
00:00:19.400 because european union leaders have gathered for the latest eu summit happening right now
00:00:24.080 where climate policies like the european union's green deal will be discussed and of course aid
00:00:29.820 to ukraine now these protests in belgium follow just days after major farmers protests all throughout
00:00:36.520 france took over parts of that country last week now a major protest in france is hardly newsworthy
00:00:43.180 something like that happens in france on every day that ends in y but this is not just france and it's
00:00:48.280 not just belgium and it's not just the netherlands and germany this is happening everywhere in europe
00:00:53.960 right now in lithuania poland italy greece spain and even scottish farmers are all fed up with
00:01:01.000 climate measures being placed on them now this is a major story because all of these protests are
00:01:05.640 connected to the same issues those same issues by the way are being planned in canada as well it
00:01:11.220 could become one of the defining stories of 2024 because in june europeans head to the polls for the
00:01:17.460 upcoming eu elections now before we get into all the details be sure to drop a like in the video help
00:01:22.780 us out by subscribing to the true north youtube channel and the comment question for the episode
00:01:26.520 is this will european farmers win big in the upcoming eu elections this june let me know your
00:01:34.180 answer in the comments below and let's get into it well we start with the scenes coming out of brussels
00:01:38.940 outside of the european union headquarters where farmers in belgium have decided to give european
00:01:44.160 leaders a piece of their mind take a look at these scenes and earlier this week the french never
00:01:50.060 wanting to miss out on a protest themselves staged even larger protests in paris and other major
00:01:56.060 cities across the country take a look at what the french were up to this week now the protests
00:02:00.520 throughout europe are not exclusively about climate measures although that is certainly a driving factor
00:02:05.740 in france and other countries farmers are upset about the prospect of free trade deals squeezing
00:02:11.140 their bottom line the importing of foreign foods into european markets currently the european union is
00:02:17.320 working on a trade partnership with brazil argentina paraguay and uruguay according to france 24 at a time
00:02:24.820 when the european union is urging farmers to adopt more sustainable agricultural practices
00:02:29.060 french unions say these agreements would open the door to massive imports at more competitive prices
00:02:35.000 of products that do not meet the same environmental standards as those originating in europe french farmers
00:02:40.300 are calling out what they say is unfair competition from farmers in south america who can grow gmo crops
00:02:45.980 and use growth promoting antibiotics on livestock which is banned in the eu and one of the reasons why these
00:02:52.020 protests have picked up considerably over the past week is because last week the european commission informed
00:02:57.800 trade unions that a deal with the south american trading bloc was set to be finalized before the end of the
00:03:04.540 mandate which is in june before europeans head to the polls for the eu elections polish farmers are
00:03:11.580 protesting of course against the european union's green deal policies placed on them but they're also
00:03:17.080 protesting the polish government over the influx of ukrainian food imports in the polish food market
00:03:23.580 according to your active polish farmers demands include reinstating trade restrictions with ukraine to
00:03:29.380 prevent ukrainian food production from flooding the polish market the protesters also oppose the european
00:03:34.520 green deal measures that restrict their business farmers in italy have also now joined the protests
00:03:40.540 here's a report from france 24. italian farmers have also been joining the europe-wide protest movement
00:03:46.380 on wednesday more than 300 vehicles gathered in alessandria near milan with a similar number of farmers
00:03:52.220 and shepherds in the sardinian port of cagliari they've yet to reach the levels of the demonstrations
00:03:58.060 in france germany or belgium but the numbers and frequency of protests are growing
00:04:02.700 i'm here to support this protest defend the territory defend italy more than anything else
00:04:09.580 because here no one cares about anything here we're forced to listen to people who don't know
00:04:15.580 anything about the things that they're deciding with this roadblock we want to show that we still
00:04:25.580 matter they must listen to us one way or another they must listen to us we will go on indefinitely
00:04:33.260 until we reach our goals now in lithuania according to lrt the state broadcaster in that country
00:04:40.380 lithuanian farmers took over the streets of vilnius to protest climate measures which include
00:04:45.340 hiked taxes on diesel gas and the scrapping of taxes on trucks and tractors the exact same measures
00:04:52.860 that german farmers were protesting last month now in greece farmers have also joined in on the protests
00:04:59.180 this time protesting the rise in fertilizer and gas costs something which has plagued the greek economy
00:05:05.420 since the ukrainian war began despite attempts from hungary's victor orban european leaders today
00:05:11.100 agreed to send 54 billion euros of aid to ukraine at a time when european farmers increasingly feel as
00:05:17.900 though solving europe's so-called climate crisis is now falling squarely on their shoulders the people
00:05:24.620 who actually keep everyone in europe fed are now having to be the ones that end up solving
00:05:29.420 climate change of course when i'm paying any attention at all none of this makes any sense
00:05:34.460 from the european union and since a country's food supply is the most important part of a country's
00:05:39.500 survival many people are left to wonder what the european union's true motivation is behind constantly
00:05:45.660 targeting farmers many of these farmers are fighting for their survival they may go out of business
00:05:51.340 and not be able to supply people with the food you know that they need to survive so is potentially
00:05:56.700 starving the people of europe in order to somehow solve climate change really the best way to go
00:06:02.620 about this and as we always like to do at true north whenever we report on european farmer protests
00:06:08.780 it's important to remind canadians at home that these policies being instituted in europe are not far away
00:06:14.780 from happening in this country as reported in true north's exclusive fertilizer files reporting
00:06:21.180 we got our hands on internal ministry of agriculture memos which show that in june 2021 the canadian
00:06:27.580 government believed that the european union's climate policy framework was an opportunity for
00:06:33.820 canada to align itself with the eu on a shared commitment to sustainable agriculture a copy of
00:06:39.180 a speech delivered by agriculture minister marie claude bibot that same year as part of a sustainable
00:06:43.740 agriculture webinar with european counterparts went even further describing canada's measures
00:06:49.580 as very closely aligned with the fertilizer reduction target in the eu's farm to fork strategy
00:06:56.140 policies like the ones in europe coming to canada are closer than many canadians would like to
00:07:01.340 think and with farmers continuing to protest all throughout europe and with european union
00:07:07.100 elections scheduled in june you can guarantee that these protests will only continue to get larger
00:07:13.340 and larger all right everyone that's going to do it for us today on the show thank you so much
00:07:17.020 for tuning in my name is harrison faulkner and this is ratio