Most of the owners of farms, so the farmers and their families, are millionaires on paper at least by virtue of owning large plots of lands and lots of assets. They also get subsidized by the state. For decades. And for decades it has been known that nitrogen will be a problem down the road. Now here we are, down the road, and nothing has been done and now after decades of sucking on the welfare udder these land owners are rioting because something HAS to be done now.

The people doing the land work, mostly seasonal migrant workers, are absolutely not millionaires. Though these people also mostly work on fruit and veggie farms which are not the main problem. The biggest polluters are meat and dairy farms.

I live next to a former dairy farm, still growing crops however - and most farmers in Central Europe are definitely “middle class” although the concept of the “comfortable” farmer family is not that rare. They are cultural distinct from “normal” more higher earning folks though.

Kulaks, first as tragedy then as farce (and also still as tragedy).