Brussels:
Belgian dairy farmers are dumping three million litres of fresh milk on to fields in the south of the country. Their grudge - low global milk prices which they claim are threatening them with bankruptcy.
So to highlight their desperation, about 300 tractors dragged milk containers through plowed fields dumping a day's worth of milk production in this region.
"We have been suffering very badly for over a year now, but in the past few months it has become really impossible, and our financial situation is very, very dire, " says Xavier Delwarte, president of FUGEA (Belgian United Federation of Animal Breeders and Farmers Groups).
The milk strike has found support outside Belgium as well. Many EU farmers have refused to deliver milk to industries which produce everything from skimmed milk and chocolates to processed cheese.
Current milk prices are anywhere between 18 to 24 euro cents a kilo. Farmers say that should be raised to 40 cents to cover costs and so are pushing for more quotas.
Since the Second World War, agriculture is one of the most shielded sectors of the European economy. But while they have been largely protected from free market forces, nothing it seems could have saved them from the global financial crisis.
So to highlight their desperation, about 300 tractors dragged milk containers through plowed fields dumping a day's worth of milk production in this region.
"We have been suffering very badly for over a year now, but in the past few months it has become really impossible, and our financial situation is very, very dire, " says Xavier Delwarte, president of FUGEA (Belgian United Federation of Animal Breeders and Farmers Groups).
The milk strike has found support outside Belgium as well. Many EU farmers have refused to deliver milk to industries which produce everything from skimmed milk and chocolates to processed cheese.
Current milk prices are anywhere between 18 to 24 euro cents a kilo. Farmers say that should be raised to 40 cents to cover costs and so are pushing for more quotas.
Since the Second World War, agriculture is one of the most shielded sectors of the European economy. But while they have been largely protected from free market forces, nothing it seems could have saved them from the global financial crisis.
