On Thursday, organizer Klaus Weber and the Bonn police said that approximately 500 participants with around 200 tractors are expected. Weber said that it could well be more, as he told the General-Anzeiger.

The demonstration will take place in front of the Ministry of Agriculture in Bonn-Duisdorf on August 15. Tractors will park on the left and the right side of the road. It is expected to start at 6 a.m. and finish at 3 p.m. During this time, the police will close Rochusstrasse in the stretch between Villemombler Strasse and Provinzialstrasse. A detour will be set up via Villemombler Strasse and Schieffelingsweg. Bicycle and foot traffic will not be affected. The police will ensure that residents in the closed-off section can leave and enter the area. From 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., a citizens' hotline will be set up for questions about traffic, ☎ 02 28/15 30 30.

As Weber explained, the focus of the protest is the EU Commission's proposed regulation, which became public in June. Among other things, the use of chemical pesticides in the European Union is to be halved by 2030 and 80 percent of damaged ecosystems in Europe are to be restored. The use of pesticides in protected areas is to be banned altogether. The proposals for "restoring nature", which have been the subject of much discussion in recent weeks, are to be debated in Brussels in September.

Weber told the GA that the initiative from Brussels in its current form amounted to a "policy against farmers”. He said it would amount to fertilization no longer being permitted at all on large areas of agricultural land in North Rhine-Westphalia. "Eighty percent of the land in NRW is in a landscape conservation area, and in the Rhein-Sieg district it is even more," explained the part-time farmer from Lohmar, whose family farm has existed for 360 years.

Most farmers in the region are direct marketers, he said. If they were no longer allowed to use crop protection, farming would no longer be profitable for them. This would affect not only conventional agriculture, but also organic farming, says Weber. As a result, the goals of increasing the share of organic farming from the current eight percent to 30 percent of the total harvest, which are also being pursued by politicians, would become a distant prospect.

According to Weber, the association has called on farmers from North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Lower Saxony and Hesse to participate on Monday. It has also invited, among others, the regional deputies in Brussels, but also the agricultural policy spokespersons of the parliamentary groups and the ministerial secretaries of state. The president of the Rhineland Agricultural Association, Bernhard Conzen, has already confirmed his attendance. In view of the war in Ukraine and the issue of self-sufficiency, the demonstration is called “We’re plowing for peace”.

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture said in response to an inquiry that the police had informed it about the demonstration. "On the question of whether there will be a discussion with the initiators at the event on Monday, no statement can be made at this time," a spokesman said. Employees have been advised to work from home if possible because of the street closure.

Three years ago, farmers held a large demonstration in Bonn to protest agricultural policy. Besides the impressive pictures of hundreds of tractors, the day was remembered for quite some time because the police directed 400 tractor drivers to a harvested corn field in Buschdorf.

Heavy rain caused the mud to stick to the big tractor wheels, which was difficult to scrape off from Kölnstrasse after they departed. Although rain is also predicted for this Monday, so far there is no talk of a parking area in a field.

(Orig. text: GA / Translation: Carol Kloeppel)