Farmers will take part in tractor protest at Westminster
12th March 2024
Farmers will drive tractors to Westminster later this month to protest against cheap food imports and to protect high British food standards in trade deals.
The collaboration of campaign group Save British Farming (SBF) and the Kent-based Farmers for Fairness group will lead the demonstration on Monday 25th March.
Farmers are planning to drive dozens of tractors and farm vehicles to London at 6pm to start the demonstration.
Protest in Canterbury
The protest will follow a demonstration that happened on Sunday 3rd March when about 200 farmers drove their tractors through Canterbury, Kent.
Farmers protested against foreign imports of food and being underpaid by supermarkets for their products.
The Canterbury protest follows a go-slow demonstration at the port of Dover on 9th February and a demonstration at Tesco Extra in Whitfield on 17th February.
Farmers then gathered to raise awareness of the threat to food security in the UK. They complained about the “unfair” treatment of British farmers in post-Brexit trade deals.
Protest in Cardiff
They have been protesting for the past few weeks to express their dissatisfaction with the new plans for SFS, which would see changes to how farms receive government funding post-Brexit.
Under the new scheme, farmers would be required to allocate 10% of their lands to planting trees and another 10% to wildlife habitat creation.
The proposal may cause 5,500 job losses for the farming community, as well as it can significantly impact farm incomes.
Wellies on display
The display was put together by farmers at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay on Wednesday 6th March, on the eve of the closing of Welsh Government’s ‘Keeping Farmers Farming’ Sustainable Farming Scheme consultation.
Each of the 5,500 wellingtons outside the Senedd building represents an agricultural job that is projected to be lost based on 100% take up of the scheme – as based on figures from Welsh Government’s own impact assessment.
Farmers across the country donated 5,500 pairs of wellingtons, that will next be donated to African charities.
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