Airstrip One

There they go again

Is there anything good about the EU? First they want to force all of Eastern Europe to allow abortion, and now they want to shut down a million small Polish farms.

EU officials say Polish farms like the Wojcik's are inefficient, unsanitary, and perpetuate poverty. EU agricultural policy requires that Poland modernize and restructure its farming sector over the next eight months. That means instituting regulations that would keep the Wojciks from selling their produce and push more than a million farmers off their land. But most Polish farmers are saying no, fearful that they will end up as an even poorer class of urban unemployed.

"The communists tried to force us off of our land in the 1950s and they failed," Mrs. Wojcik says, her face breaking into a crinkly smile. "We are staying. This is the only life we know and it suits us fine. Who are those politicians to say our farm is too poor?"