Farmers are the backbone of society, ensuring that our tables are filled with food three times a day, every day of the week. Seemingly, in the modern world, their irreplacable role is often taken for granted. We rarely pause to consider that the contents of our refrigerators connect us directly to those who labor tirelessly to sustain us. What happens if the farmers disappear? The answer is simple, our refrigerators remain empty. Food security, once a cornerstone of national policy and identity, is now being eroded by globalist ideologies, threatening not just agriculture but the very fabric of Western civilisation.

In the United Kingdom, farmers face a so-called “tractor tax,” part of inheritance tax reforms introduced in 2024 that remove agricultural property relief for estates over £1 million. For family farms, where land and equipment easily exceed this threshold, passing the farm to the next generation now incurs crippling tax bills—often forcing sales. The National Farmers’ Union estimates this could affect 70% of UK farms, many of which operate on thin margins. Combined with post-Brexit trade disruptions and rising energy costs, UK farmers are being pushed toward extinction. Many of these businesses are asset-rich but cash-poor, meaning that a tax based on land value could force sales that threaten the future of generational farms. These aren’t faceless corporations—these are families who have farmed the land for centuries.

At the same time, the government’s decision to suspend the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) payments has left farmers questioning their future. They were encouraged to invest in environmental schemes, only to be left high and dry.

Throughout February 2024, marches were held in Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana to highlight the absence of legal guarantees for a minimum support price (MSP) for farmers’ crops – a crucial agricultural policy safeguarding farmers’ livelihood. (The Indian government sets a minimum price, or MSP, for certain agricultural products where market prices are less than the costs incurred by farmers.)

In Argentina, protests by smallholder farmers have also gained momentum. Here, farmers are bringing attention to a lack of access to land and unfair pricing, made worse by a severe drought that damaged crops in 2023. Farmers are also protesting the lack of governmental support and public funding for agroecology (sustainable farming that works with nature). Argentina’s recent dengue fever outbreak has highlighted the need for agroecological farming, with the outbreak linked in part to damaging industrial agriculture practices, such as the use of agrochemicals, which kill off predators of the dengue mosquito, fish and amphibians.

Farmers are visibly unsure of their future, being made to feel as though they are burdens rather than providers. Their contribution to society globally will not be reduced to the quality of how they are being treated. There is a war against farmers, but they will not be put to shame.

To support your local farmers, many of them have ongoing campaigns where they require signatures for your local government to review certain rulings. You may have the opportunity to help by signing their petition. If they reach a certain number of signatures, then your local government must review their plans. You can source your food from small-scale independent farmers, shops and farmers who sell their produce online.

– Written by Ejemen Ebosele