Norwegian farmers take action these days because they think it is not profitable enough to engage in food production. The number of farms is steadily reduced. There were nearly 160,000 farms in 1969, today there are only 46,000 farms left (2010). This is how it looks if you travel through the country nowadays. And in the cities there have been many angry farmers recently.
Bente Haarstad Photography 
This is a problem in here too… Thank you dear Bente, love, nia
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Turkey too, well I am not surprised, Nia.
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Hi,
That is really sad, with the population of the world always increasing we really need more farms I feel.
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The norwegian goevernment have just decided we need to rise the agricultural production with 20 prosent in short time, and the next minute they offer the farmers conditions they can’t cope with..
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Over here some bunch of fools suddenly decided to build up eolic farms to produce electricity in the country’s most fertile lands… I guess we’re surrounded by idiots, everywhere… 😦
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Agree with you, Mcolmo. It is objectionable if one uses fertile land to anything but food production. (Had to check the meaning of eolic, its wind technology..)
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LOL! I’m not against eolic technology, just against the fools who decide putting them on fertile land. There are plenty of other places, they just do it on purpose to make things worse.
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That’s not good. The situation is same. The number of farmers in Japan is decreasing because of the aging society and the decreasing of the price of vegetables..
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I have read that in Japan they are using robots to farm radioactive land around Fukushima.
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That’s right. It must be expensive.
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Thats is not I sustainable development, Cocomino. Thanks for your comment. And thanks to Elaine too.
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Simple & to the point. Society eats more food than ever and there are less farms. Something big time wrong with that scenario.
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Yes I think so too, Ella.
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Oh Farmers all over are facing these problems
being ignored and neglected and govt.turns deaf ears to their pleas..
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Seems sadly so, Soma.
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In the UK, the price farmers are given for their produce by the big supermarkets is constantly being cut whilst the price of food in said supermarkets keeps going up. Our biggest supermarket made £3.5bn last year, an obscene amount of profit. These companies have become too powerful. Governments need to do much more to protect food production, especially in such worrying economic times.
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Thats seems to be fact these days, it is not thoes that are producing that are getting rich, but those selling their produce.
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Farmers are ploughing vegetables back into the ground instead of sending them to market, here in Sri Lanka. Or committing suicide, because they can’t pay for the cost of last year’s rice crop …
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Really a terrible situation. I hope it will change for the better.
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Do you think that’s likely, the way things are going in the world these days? Oh dear, I’m in a pessimistic phase. About time I felt the purity of your northern, reindeer regions … 🙂
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this is like my country where every year there are farmers committing suicide when they cant pay their debt… this is really sad…
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Yes, I have read horrible stories of the hopeless situation for many farmers in India. Such a situation can’t go on.
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Always farmers…
Poor, poor people…
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Technology, while wonderful, fosters an indifference toward the outdoors. Kids watch television or play games while riding to and fro from everywhere. Adults want the fastest path to everywhere, and do not stop to think of the consequence of want, want, want.
Our farms, our environment, and our spirits will continue to die as long as humankind continues to misunderstand what it means to have dominion over the earth.
We are stewards… not greedy guests… on Earth. Thank you for posting this. The picture says it all, visually; the comments affirm its truth.
Meredith
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Thanks for your interesting comment, Meredith.
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We have the same problem in Holland: small farmers don’t survive and others are expanding their grounds to generate more income or supplement their incomes with other activities. Especially this last strategy is a big trend in Holland. Look at these statstics: http://www.cbs.nl/en-GB/menu/themas/landbouw/publicaties/artikelen/archief/2012/2012-3606-wm.htm?Languageswitch=on
The argricultural schools anticipate on this by creating new courses for example for childcare and farming or psychiatric care and farming.
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Interesting statistic. There are many farmers in Norway who do the same thing, that is other things, to get more income.
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I try to shop as little as possible in supermarkets and go to independent greengrocers, bakers, butchers or farmers’ markets. Supermarkets are evil places where they cheat everyone, the consumer out of money, choice and real quality, the farmer out of a decent living and the environment with their blessed air miles on imported food. Buy local food from local producers.
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I agree a lot about buying local food from local producers, Maria.
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Hi Bente, I nominated you for the Illuminating Blogger Award! I you want to accept please check my blog! Have a nice weekend!! 🙂
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Wow, that is really great, Dutchgoesitalian! I will see to it later. My plan is to make a page for this, but I can’t find out to make pages. Maybe I have to change the layout theme..
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If you go to the dashboard there should be written PAGES on the left and then you click on ADD NEW. At least that’s how it works in my dashboard…maybe it changes if the theme changes, I don’t know.
Anyway happy you liked it! 🙂
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Yes, I know, I did long time ago. But it doesn’t show.. Thanks for wanting to help! 🙂
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Part of the plan. Drive out the small farmers and replace them with corporate ones e.g. Monsanto.
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Iit does certainly seem to be a trend that is not good for the farmers, and probably not for us consumers either..
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We just need to get people to eat more raw, natural foods rather than fast-chemically processed, sugar enhanced anti-foods 😦 then farms and farmers will be valued once again – the way they should be. After all, they are feeding the world.
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Yes, the farmers are feeding the world. Maybe we should appreciate it more. And for our sake look for quality, not just what is the cheapest.
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And with that, I think Monsanto will rule the world. A sad day indeed.
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We must try for happy days also in the future, Karen.
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I sympathize with their plight. I didn’t read your links but will. I didn’t understand the symbolism of the big white thing with the sad face and the cross on top. What does it mean?
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The big, white thing is how many farmers now are ensilating grass after harvesting. We see them everywere, but these days with an angry message. Words or faces like this. I think the face expression tells it all. And I guess the cross is meant to say: farming is beeing killed…Many fear that todays situation is the end to farming. At least to the farms run by families, which have been the normal thing in Norway up to now.
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Many family farms have been replaced by corporate farm entities here in the U.S. as well. I regret that and can see how that is causing such anguish amongst the farmers in Norway. We cannot live without the farmers. I would rather pay them well and pay entertainers and athletes less. Isn’t it a shame how poorly we support those we need the most?
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Thanks for highlighting this!
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it seems like a very civilized and creative form of protest.
and effective – with a little help from you, now i know about their problems too – well done 🙂
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Same in Greece. Farms are being abandoned because the cost of producing & harvesting anything is higher than the price the farmer gets. Young farmers migrate to towns to find a living and unemployment soars.
Question is, who benefits from this situation?
Why are farmers being pushed out of their farms worldwide?
Who will produce our food when they are gone?
Large companies are moving in: they’ll produce the food we need, impose the prices, hire the displaced farmers as cheap workforce. Governments and EU regulators just do their bidding when imposing impossible regulations for farmers.
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A very interesting comment. Thanks a lot.
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I don’t know if in all your countries you have cooperative organisations. We have one in the UK (The Coop) and Denmark has one too (Brugsen). Ours in the UK actively encourages cooperation and ethical sourcing, buying, animal rearing etc so farmers get a fair deal. It seems to me it would really benefit the farmers to work together as a ‘Cooperative to fend off the abusive predations of the supermarkets and get a fair price for their produce. It’s crazy that so many millions and millions of tons of good food is wasted globally each year and at the same time farmers are driven to commit suicide. It’s just not right.
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Canada has followed the US and industrialized farming has taken over. It has become difficult for the independent farmer to keep up with big industry. It seems farms are either huge industrial monsters overusing the land and abusing animals or the small organic farmer, feeding his community. I would like to think we will start to see an increase in small farms and community based living. I try to support this as best I can within my own community.
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