Tractors are also on the streets of Geneva – the first mobilization of farmers in the country

About thirty tractors took to the streets of Geneva to express the “rebellion” of Swiss farmers and their demands, the first such action in Switzerland since the farmers’ mobilization began in Europe.

“What scares us young people is that, to be honest, we don’t know if our profession has a future. It is very sad to see the generation before us, who were already struggling to make a profit and modernize their equipment to do what the policy requires them to do: to produce in a greener and better way,” he explained to AFP. Antonin Ramou, 19 years old. , apprentice vintner.

Welcoming the transition to green farming, this young protester calls for “more help”. “And most importantly, we cannot compete with products that do not follow the same rules and these targets,” he emphasized.

The first farmers’ meeting in non-EU Switzerland was organized by farmers’ organization Uniterre after another farmers’ union, the Union suisse des paysans, launched a signature petition this week containing a number of demands. Energy, some consider it insufficient.

The tractors, escorted by the police, gathered in a large square in the center of Geneva, drawing a crowd of about 200 people.

“This is the first agricultural meeting in Switzerland after demonstrations and blockades across Europe. Many in Switzerland say the situation is different and that we are not following EU policies, “but in fact we are suffering the same fate,” Elin Miller, secretary of the Uniterre union, told AFP.

“The end of us will be your hunger”

Sitting on a tractor, Rudy Burley, another Uniterre representative, said: “Agriculture in Europe is in a very bad state. Profit for the big chain and the agri-food industry”.

“This background also applies to what is happening in Switzerland,” he said.

Among the slogans on the banners hanging from the tractors are: “No farmers, nothing in your mouth”, “Your hunger will be the end of us” or even “Big retail chains must pay fair prices”.

Florian Bode, 50, a beef and chicken farmer, is calling for more “transparency” about supermarkets’ profits.

“Distributors have higher profits than manufacturers,” he told AFP. “This is completely unacceptable,” he replied.

He also encourages the purchase of local products, although he emphasizes that he does not want to “put everything on the shoulders of the consumer, because today it is necessary to find out the origin of the products on the label.

Source: APE-MPE-AFP.
Source: https://www.ertnews.gr/eidiseis/diethni/elvetia-trakter-kai-stous-dromous-tis-geneyis-i-proti-kinitopoiisi-ton-agroton-sti-xora/