Farmers’ Voices in European Protests

Diverse Complaints, Emotional Tones, and Policy Responses

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7514403
AutoresDoris Läpple (0000-0003-4935-5403, University of Göttingen, autor de correspondencia), Sophie Thoyer (0000-0003-2900-2117, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Goedele Van Den Broeck (0000-0002-8480-3526), Pauline Lécole (0000-0002-7667-1236, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Jaap Sok (0000-0001-6706-244X, Wageningen University & Research), Yann De Mey (0000-0002-1430-5564, Wageningen University & Research)
Año2026
Volumen138
Páginas102999
Fecha de publicación2026-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaFood Policy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0306-9192 • E-ISSN: 1873-5657
EditorialElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102999
OpenAlexW4416452665
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas42

Analyzed 2232 farmers’ protest reasons across four European countries. • Used open-ended survey data to capture top-of-mind concerns from farmers. • Country-specific protest reasons: bureaucracy, financial, policy, and diverse motivations. • Some misalignment between farmers’ concerns and EU policy priorities. The 2024 farmers’ protests across Europe signaled widespread dissatisfaction in the agricultural sector. While low farm incomes and restrictive environmental regulations are commonly cited grievances, little is known about underlying motivations and individual farmers’ reasons for protesting. This study explores individual farmers’ protest motivations in Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands to gain a deeper understanding of the diverse concerns shaping agricultural discontent across Europe. We analyze rich text data from 2232 farmers, collected through surveys using an open-ended question designed to elicit unprompted, top-of-mind protest reasons. By using a combination of hand and AI-assisted coding, we quantify protest reasons across countries, assess the emotional tone of farmers’ answers, and explore how this aligns with policy responses. Our findings indicate that farmers’ main protest reasons differ across the four countries, with German farmers mainly complaining about bureaucracy, French farmers about financial reasons, Belgian farmers expressing diverse complaints, while Dutch farmers focus mainly on the political environment. The emotional tone of farmers’ answers reveals that specific, targeted complaints are more often expressed in an annoyed angry tone, while broader topics seem to trigger aggressive anger. Linking farmers’ protest reasons to national and EU policy responses shows that, while some key complaints received adequate policy attention, environmental complaints were disproportionately prioritized by EU policymakers and some Member States. The findings from this study have important implications with the potential to improve the effectiveness of policy responses by contributing to the identification of adequate solutions to ease farmers’ grievances

Agriculture · Common Agricultural Policy · European union · German · Politics · Tone (literature · Agricultural Economics and Policy · Agricultural risk and resilience · Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies