
On Saturday January 18th, demonstrators in Berlin will take to the streets to say: “We are fed up with agri-industry!”. Ahead of the 15th annual Wir haben es satt! demo, Claudia Schievelbein of the Bauernstimme and AbL, reflects on the Weaving Common Ground gathering held in Poland last November, transition fatigue in agriculture and the need for better understanding between rural and urban areas.
By Claudia Schievelbein

At the end of November, there is little light over the Vistula floodplains in Mazovia in central Poland. The flat land, the few gnarled trees, the bending willows along the wide river shrouded in wisps of fog – the sparsely populated area around the isolated farm of Ewa and Peter Stratenwerth in Grzybów seems almost mystical.
It is a special place, not only because of the blue wooden farmhouse – almost a century old- or because huge formations of cranes fly so flat across the sky just before early dusk that the birds look as big as mythological dragons from long-forgotten times. The farm is special because it is not just an organic farm that two dedicated people have built up with cows and goats, a cheese dairy, a bakery and a well-stocked farm shop. They have also set up a rural seminar and meeting centre inspired by the Danish pastor and politician Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig, who in the 19th century wanted to bring a sense of community and social engagement to rural areas through education with rural folk high schools.
At the Ecological Folk High School in Grzybów, agroecological courses are held as part of agricultural training, thousands of schoolchildren learn about agriculture and nature every year and events, such as Weaving Common Ground in November 2024, take place. Weaving Common Ground was the third in a series European rural gatherings that began in Plessé in Loire Atlantique with the question of more democratic co-determination in municipal structures, and then in 2023 presented examples of lively and very practical living and trading relationships between the city and the surrounding countryside in Marburg, Hesse.

Transition fatigue
In Poland, too, many farmers demonstrated on the streets with their tractors a year ago. Here, too, many feel crushed by mounting bureaucratic hurdles from Brussels and by poor prices for their products, as well as by cheap grain imports from Ukraine, for example. In Poland, as almost everywhere else in Europe, a mood of isolation and the feeling of not being understood by urban dwellers is fuelling the rise of nationalists, populists and protectionists. The illusion that politically, and therefore also in life and on the farms, everything can go on as before, or, even better, that things can return to the peaceful and more prosperous times after the end of the Iron Curtain, is a good sell.
A transition fatigue is affecting agriculture, which plays an ever smaller role in modern society in terms of employment figures and from which – very strongly in the 2010s – a transformation towards more climate and animal protection was and is expected. In some cases, almost unattainable expectations were formulated, in addition to the fact that climate change, which is certainly taking place, challenges farmers in their daily work with droughts and/or masses of water at inopportune times. As one farmer in Grzybów put it, the tractor protests created a no-longer-familiar sense of community among like-minded peers.

Common understanding
It is not so easy to get people out of their silos and bubbles – this was made clear at Weaving Common Ground, which explicitly aimed to build bridges and emphasise commonalities. There must at least be a willingness to talk together. But the fact that singing and dancing together contributes to understanding is also something that the participants at the gathering in Grzybów were able to experience.
And it became clear time and time again that the aim was to exchange ideas, see commonalities and formulate actions together: the idea of a farmers’ Erasmus programme was born, but also proposals for direct food sales links for people in the city with little money, ideas for other community supports and tools to empower local actors to speak with more political weight.
Adam Struzik, Marshal of the Mazovian Voivodeship and a member of the EU Committee of the Regions, highlighted the transformative impact of Poland’s integration into the European Union, particularly in rural areas. Speaking as a political guest during one evening of the gathering, he stressed the importance of ensuring that the voices of rural communities are heard. Struzik pledged to bring the gathering’s proposals, along with a stronger representation of Poland’s countryside, to Brussels via the Committee of the Regions.

Who is actually profiting?
After moving from Switzerland to Poland, in the early 1990s Peter Stratenwerth began to bring his farm produce to an organic shop in the city, where he met his future wife, Ewa. Together, they have spent decades fostering connections between urban and rural life, inviting children, young people and adults to experience the countryside firsthand. At national level in Germany, the Wir haben es satt! (We are fed up) demonstration has for over a decade united farmers, environmental and animal rights activists, sustainable development advocates and consumers to advocate for fair and ecological food for all on the streets of Berlin.
On Saturday, January 18, diverse groups will gather once again in Berlin to champion a new approach to agricultural policy. United under the motto “Who is actually profiting here?”, demonstrators will stand against the prioritisation of corporate interests over the common good. They will demand fair working and living conditions on the farm, in the slaughterhouse and across the food system, along with fair prices for farmers and consumers, and the protection of our climate, environment and animals. Come and join us!
You can find all the details about the 15th Wir haben es satt! demonstration here.
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