2 ms·

It's crazy how much deference is given to farmers compared to every other occupation. If the garbage men started dumping the contents of garbage bags in public

by pibaker 2mo ago

It's crazy how much deference is given to farmers compared to every other occupation. If the garbage men started dumping the contents of garbage bags in public places I bet they will not be given a free pass.

Aromasin 2mo ago
Look to Birmingham in the UK for evidence of the same deference. Many have been on strike since 2025. The city was a rat infested public waste dump for nearly 3 months until the government hired private firms to do the waste handling while the public worker strike action continued. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%932026_Birmingham_bin_strike https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%932026_Birmingham_b... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqxlxv0vvnxo https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqxlxv0vvnxo
koiueo 2mo ago
Don't believe everything you read. This is russian sabotage + russian trolls now trying to make it look like it's something else
- vanviegen 2mo ago
  Who's the troll here? Do you even know what you're talking about?
vanviegen 2mo ago
I think this deference is largely inspired by the police not knowing how to deal with these huge tractors.
- pjc50 2mo ago
  Rubbish. They don't want to. The tractors have license plates, allowing them to be pursued after the fact, and the NL police have firearms if they want to get spicy. There have been a number of attacks in Europe of the form "deranged person drives vehicle into crowd". I'm sure the police wouldn't sit back and shrug if that was done with a tractor. The vehicle doesn't have magic properties, the driver has police protection.
  - vanviegen 2mo ago
    The protestors tape their license plates. And I'm happy to report Dutch police generally doesn't draw guns on people who are no direct threat. And how is the "vehicle driven into crowd" even relevant here? Nobody's using these tractors to kill (intentionally), but they're just many and hard to stop.
    - pjc50 2mo ago
      > The protestors tape their license plates. One weird trick: simply commit an offense in front of the police, and suddenly they can't do anything because it's "too hard".
ktm5j 2mo ago
You can go a long while without your trash being taken away for you.. you can't go very long without food.
- yuye 2mo ago
  Most of the food the farmers produce in the Netherlands is exported. Meanwhile, trash piles up quickly: https://nltimes.nl/2023/02/07/utrecht-garbage-strike-comes-end-one-week https://nltimes.nl/2023/02/07/utrecht-garbage-strike-comes-e...
- preisschild 2mo ago
  Without European farmers having so much political capital we could just import food from unsubsidized farmers..
account42 2mo ago
It's almost as if food security is much more important than most other jobs.
- preisschild 2mo ago
  While in reality it is not. We can just import food.
contravariant 2mo ago
> If the garbage men started dumping the contents of garbage bags in public places I bet they will not be given a free pass. I mean, they wouldn't have to, they just need to stop cleaning it up. Such an action likely will be given a free pass, anything other than that is strikebreaking which is either illegal or heavily discouraged depending on jurisdiction.

by pibaker 2mo ago

Aromasin 2mo ago

Look to Birmingham in the UK for evidence of the same deference. Many have been on strike since 2025. The city was a rat infested public waste dump for nearly 3 months until the government hired private firms to do the waste handling while the public worker strike action continued. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%932026_Birmingham_bin_strike https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%932026_Birmingham_b... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqxlxv0vvnxo https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqxlxv0vvnxo

koiueo 2mo ago

Don't believe everything you read. This is russian sabotage + russian trolls now trying to make it look like it's something else

vanviegen 2mo ago
Who's the troll here? Do you even know what you're talking about?

vanviegen 2mo ago

I think this deference is largely inspired by the police not knowing how to deal with these huge tractors.

pjc50 2mo ago
Rubbish. They don't want to. The tractors have license plates, allowing them to be pursued after the fact, and the NL police have firearms if they want to get spicy. There have been a number of attacks in Europe of the form "deranged person drives vehicle into crowd". I'm sure the police wouldn't sit back and shrug if that was done with a tractor. The vehicle doesn't have magic properties, the driver has police protection.
- vanviegen 2mo ago
  The protestors tape their license plates. And I'm happy to report Dutch police generally doesn't draw guns on people who are no direct threat. And how is the "vehicle driven into crowd" even relevant here? Nobody's using these tractors to kill (intentionally), but they're just many and hard to stop.
  - pjc50 2mo ago
    > The protestors tape their license plates. One weird trick: simply commit an offense in front of the police, and suddenly they can't do anything because it's "too hard".

ktm5j 2mo ago

You can go a long while without your trash being taken away for you.. you can't go very long without food.

yuye 2mo ago
Most of the food the farmers produce in the Netherlands is exported. Meanwhile, trash piles up quickly: https://nltimes.nl/2023/02/07/utrecht-garbage-strike-comes-end-one-week https://nltimes.nl/2023/02/07/utrecht-garbage-strike-comes-e...
preisschild 2mo ago
Without European farmers having so much political capital we could just import food from unsubsidized farmers..

account42 2mo ago

It's almost as if food security is much more important than most other jobs.

preisschild 2mo ago
While in reality it is not. We can just import food.

contravariant 2mo ago

> If the garbage men started dumping the contents of garbage bags in public places I bet they will not be given a free pass. I mean, they wouldn't have to, they just need to stop cleaning it up. Such an action likely will be given a free pass, anything other than that is strikebreaking which is either illegal or heavily discouraged depending on jurisdiction.