Food Fight in Brussels

Angry farmers took to the streets to protest low food prices in Brussels, Belgium. They dumped milk into the streets and threw eggs. One pictures shows a farmer aiming streams of milk directly from a cow’s udder onto policemen.

The protest organizers, the European Milk Board, said that more than 1,000 tractors and 5,000 people took part on behalf of “more than 80,000 dairy farmers”.

The group said milk prices are below 75 percent of production costs. Another European farm union organization, Copa-Cogeca, says that milk prices have plummeted 30 percent in a year and that dairy producers will lose up to 14 billion euros before the end of the year if nothing is done.

See the awesome full version of this cropped picture at the New York Times. Link -via Buzzfeed

(image credit: Georges Gobet/Agence France-Presse)

Newest 5

Newest 5 Comments

This photo is awesome. Still, the whole situation in Europe really isn't. It's an awful time for dairy farmers (and really anyone who's trading with them) in Europe right now. Dairy farmers are currently not even able to cover production costs as prices continue to drop and the EU hasn't done anything about it. Many farmers, like the man in the picture, are protesting by spilling (or shooting) milk out onto the streets. The waste is huge and really sad, but the farmers have to get the EU to listen.
There is an interesting video on all of this at newsy.com. The video highlights main events surrounding this huge controversy, offering a few different perspectives/sources. It's worth watching and commenting on if you have a few minutes:

http://www.newsy.com/videos/crying_over_spilled_milk