Baronet Farmer To Drive Tractor to Reading
A symbolic 'solidarity’ action in support of Polish farmers will take place on Sir Julain Rose’s Path Hill Farm on the Hardwick Estate, Whitchurch-on-Thames, Saturday 26th January. Sir Julian will also drive his tractor on a shopping trip to Reading.
The action is being organized by Sir Julian, owner of the Hardwick Estate and President of The International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside (ICPPC), to express solidarity with Polish farmers who are blockading towns in North West Poland in order to stop the government selling off prime farmland to multinational corporations to grow GM food on. Jadwiga Lopata, founder of the ICPPC, is co-organising the event.
Sir Julian recently mounted a prominent 'GMO Free Zone’ sign on the gates of his Hardwick Estate at Whitchurch-on-Thames and is an active campaigner against GM foods in Poland and in the UK.
’Land grabs’ are becoming more common around the world as multinational corporations look to establish themselves on foreign soils and exploit the resource base in order to increase their export opportunities.
Genetically modified food is firmly rejected by 75% of Polish citizens and approximately 55% of UK citizens. The Polish government has recently passed a new Act which claims to ban planting of GM seeds, but in reality is allowing them in at the back door because it failed to ban 'trading’ of such seeds.
Sir Julian said: „Its good to be able to show solidarity with fellow farmers in Poland. The issues that they are defending impact upon all of us. Good farmland is increasingly under threat from corporate greed and most national agricultural policies are completely out of step with public demand. Governments are far too often complicit in supporting the corporate position.”
Sir Julian will drive a tractor from Path Hill Farm, carrying Polish flags and placards proclaiming 'Solidarity with the Polish farmers’, 'Stop GMO’ and 'Free-up Repressive Food Regulations’ that inhibit local sales.
Date: Saturday 26th January
Time: 11:00 am
Place: Path Hill Farm, Whitchurch-on-Thames, Pangbourne, Reading RG8 7RE