Angry Protests

It’s hard not to watch the angry protests and demonstrations of farmers in Europe without feeling more than a little queasy, both for the hardships they have been suffering like most farmers around the globe, and for the dumping of good produce and milk on the streets of their cities. Some farmers in France have even gone so far as to ignite bales of hay on thoroughfares, causing traffic delays until firefighters could put out the blaze. Are they getting someone’s attention? You bet. But is it the kind of attention that will eventually benefit those farmers and their cause? That remains to be seen. Like a proverbial snowball rolling downhill these types of things can quickly get out of hand. They say that desperate times lead to desperate measures, but so often desperation can lead to devastation. Hopefully farmers here in the United States can watch and learn from the struggles going on with their counterparts across the sea and work with our nations legislators to make the right decisions and choices that will result in improving U.S. farmer’s economic outlook.