Sour grapes
OPINION: As a country we should be celebrating Fonterra’s solid annual results announced last week.
From Paris to Brussels and from Madrid to Warsaw, thousands of farmers have taken to the city streets on their tractors demanding action on cheap supermarket prices and what they say is unfair competition from abroad.
Ag ministers from across the EU pledged to do more to cut red tape and help farmers, but there’s no end in sight to the mayhem.
In fact, things got a bit out of hand last week: farmers broke through a blockade in Brussels to enter the European Quarters as EU ag ministers met for a summit.
In Belgium, police blockades were sprayed with cow effluent by angry farmers.
Farmers are hoping that there will come a time when police would have to pick a side and hope they choose wisely.
