The March for Science, set for Saturday in Washington, may command attention for one reason: “It’s pretty rare for people in any occupation to march on their field’s behalf,” says FiveThirtyEight in an examination of public protest. “When scientists travel from across the country to ask their government for respect and funding, the group they will most closely be emulating is farmers.”
Farmers mounted protests in Washington at least 16 times from 1960-95, including the Tractorcades of 1978 and 1979, according to a database of social movement activity compiled by a Penn State sociology professor. The database counts 24,398 collective-action events nationwide. “There haven’t been many protests that addressed the reputational concerns of a single occupation, or its big-picture finances in a broad way — and especially not at a national scale,” says FiveThirtyEight.
“These (farmer) protests were, like the March for Science, a demand for respect, appreciation and funding by an occupation in which workers felt they were being discounted,” writes Maggie Koerth-Baker for FiveThirtyEight.