In Poland, farmers blocked roads for weeks to protest low prices and competition from cheap EU imports. In France, farmers ransacked the office of the country's environment minister to protest regulations and EU plans to cut subsidies. Other French farmers joined German counterparts in placing 1,000 tractors across roads near Strasbourg to protest EU policies. In Greece, farmers used 500 tractors to block roads to demand debt write-offs and more subsidies. The problems facing pig farmers in Poland are urgent, in that the Russian financial collapse has robbed them of their key export market.
Experts say pork prices in Poland have fallen to about half the actual cost of production.
The government has offered greatly increased subsidies for pork, helping ease that problem. But getting agreement on reforms meant to prepare Poland for EU membership will be more difficult. Most farms in Poland are small, too small for modern, efficient farming, and many people fear they will be driven from the land. A large 25 percent of the population in Poland is still engaged in agriculture, compared with typically about four or five percent in Western Europe. The high figure scares those who fear the destabilizing effects of EU expansion.