Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

Europe

Hundreds of tractors driven by angry farmers block traffic during protest over plan to cut nitrate levels

Debate over agriculture pollution is becoming a political issue in many EU farming nations

Associated Press
Published
close
Fox News Flash top headlines for March 3 Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for March 3

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com.

Hundreds of tractors driven by angry farmers protesting a plan to cut nitrate levels converged on Brussels on Friday, creating major traffic disruption in Belgium's capital city.

The BB farmers union and several others combined efforts to gather more than 2,700 farm vehicles, according to Brussels police.

Several major roads in Brussels were closed and police warned that disruptions could last until the end of the day, recommending that people use public transportation instead of personal cars.

BRUSSELS ON LOCKDOWN AFTER EXPLOSIONS AT TRANSPORTATION HUBS

The Flemish regional government is struggling to find a deal to cut nitrate pollution over farmers’ objections that it would put many out of business.

Farmers with their tractors in the road

Tractors driven by angry farmers block traffic on a road in the center of Brussels, during a demonstration on March 3, 2023.  (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Farmers also claim that their trade has to make much deeper cuts than industry and want to see a more equitable spread. Negotiations have lingered for weeks and weakened the regional government of northern Belgium to breaking point.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP 

The debate over agricultural pollution is increasingly turning into a political issue in many of the EU’s farming nations. It is to be a focal point of Dutch elections in two weeks’ time and is also affecting Belgium, another EU nation where intensive farming has put environmentalists against the agricultural lobby.