Farmers, activists to converge on EU headquarters to push for greener, fairer farm policy

BRUSSELS – Farmers and activists from all over the continent are converging on European Union headquarters to push for a food policy which is kinder to the environment and developing nations.

Organizers expect hundreds of protesters, some of whom have been cycling or walking for weeks in the Good Food March, to gather for a mass brunch outside the European Parliament in Brussels, where a reform of the costly pan-EU farm system is being discussed.

From the culinary Slow Food movement to the Friends of the Earth environmental group, eight major groups have set up the march to push demands to drastically revamp policy away from industrial farming.

The coalition unites under the slogan “EU farm policy must be fundamentally changed” when a new 7-year program kicks in after 2013.