2 March 2026Since the winter of 2024, farmers’ mobilisations have often been portrayed in the media as a widespread rejection of environmental regulations. But is this really the case? What do the farmers involved in these protests actually say?
A large-scale study conducted in France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands provides a more nuanced perspective. It shows that, depending on the country, the weight of environmental regulations ultimately appears to be a secondary issue, even though it has been at the heart of political responses to the protests.
In an article published in The Conversation, Sophie Thoyer and Pauline Lécole analyse the drivers of this contestation at the European level and present the main findings of the study they conducted with several European researchers. The results have been published in the scientific journal Food Policy.
Read the article >>> (in french)