Roy Meijer from Witteveen hands over with 30 farmers’ manifesto in Brussels
There he is. At the European Parliament in Brussels. Roy Meijer from Witteveen. Chairman of English Agricultural Youth Contact. Together with about ten to fifteen Dutch farmers and ten to fifteen Flemish farmers. And two tractors.
The thirty farmers were there yesterday afternoon to take action. Or rather: to hand over something. Not entirely coincidentally, on the day of all agriculture ministers, there are European documents. “It’s all been arranged in advance,” says Meijer.
Like Meijer, those thirty farmers are all young farmers. That’s why they are there. They want a ‘young farming check’ in European policy. A young peasant test. “So that we also have to look at the consequences for young farmers of climate legislation.” This test means that new legislation is examined to see what that means for young farmers.
In order to achieve this, they handed over a manifesto and started discussions with MEPs. It is done by the Dutch Agricultural Youth Contact and the Flemish young farmers’ organization Groene Kring. “We will do this more often in Brussels. A lot of legislation comes from here. The Hague seems to have nature and the ecological, not for the economy. That is why we are moving to Brussels.”