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Pierre Brittany woke up at 4am to feed the cows on his organic farm near the coastal town of Pornic in western France, then did something he had never dared to do before.
He made cardboard protest banners about the nightmare of French bureaucracy and went to support a slow convoy of tractors warning that France’s agriculture and rural way of life were facing collapse. A statue of a dead farmer hung from the noose of a tractor-trailer as a convoy of vehicles, honking horns and waving banners, rolled into the center of the Brittany city of Rennes. There was a line that said, “Quality comes at a price.”
“We’re disgusted and outraged,” says Brittany, 38. “I love what I do. I farm organically because it’s what I believe in and it’s the right thing to do ethically and health-wise.” Among them, I have never participated in a protest. I would rather be with animals. But things are getting very difficult. We need fair prices that reflect not only the quality of our produce, but also the love we have for our work and the countryside. This is a passion and a mission, but we are not recognized for it. ”
The French government has been stunned by the scale and fury of grassroots farmer demonstrations that have spread from the southwest to the rest of the country this week.
Hay bales and tractors are being used to block highways. Fertilizer was sprayed on public buildings and supermarkets in the southwest. Crates of tomatoes, cabbage and cauliflower, which farmers say were cheaply imported, were thrown across the road. The protests follow other demonstrations by farmers in Europe, including Germany and Romania, but the French protests are particularly urgent and have strong local political overtones. France, the EU’s biggest agricultural producer, is home to thousands of independent producers of meat, dairy products, fruit and vegetables, and wine, and is known for its destructive protests.
For months, angry farmers in villages across France have turned road signs upside down in protest, and Marine Le Pen’s far-right party has toured the country trying to appeal to rural voters.
But in Paris, Emmanuel Macron appointed Gabriel Attal as the new prime minister earlier this month, focusing instead on issues such as law and order and the introduction of school uniform exams. The agricultural protests are the first major headache for Attal, just five months before European elections that could give France’s far-right a boost.
On Thursday, fishermen from Brittany also took part. If the social protest movement grows, other union members may follow suit.later gilets jaunes The government is so sensitive to the 2018 and 2019 yellow vest protests that it has instructed riot police to act in moderation rather than removing barricades. Demonstrators have many demands. Ensuring fairer prices for agricultural products, continuing the diesel tax cut on farm vehicles, eliminating red tape in France layered on top of EU rules, and providing immediate support to struggling organic farmers. is.
Opinion polls show massive public support (up to 90%) for the farmers’ protests, but the farmers believe that French consumers are struggling to make ends meet and are being deceived by supermarkets. Therefore, they do not necessarily choose French produce at the store.
In France, organic farming is facing a serious crisis, including a sharp decline in sales, and Brittany says it has taken a psychological toll. “In human terms, this is a catastrophe,” he says of the loneliness and isolation faced by some farmers. His own father, who came from a farming background, was unable to adapt to the changing industry and died from “exhaustion” at the age of 60. Brittany earned just €600-700 (£512-597) a month and the market was so tough that she sold much of her organic produce, including beef, free-range chicken and sunflower products, as conventional rather than organic produce. .
“People think organic food is too expensive, but organic farmers don’t make much of a profit from store prices,” he says. “Where does that profit go? Who is lining their pockets?
Brittany’s wife works as a support worker for adults with disabilities, and her salary was enough to support him and their two children. But for him, farming was about existing in the countryside and keeping rural communities alive. he says: “The world is changing too fast for us. We don’t know where we are.”
The agricultural union Ruralé Coordination, which organized the protest in Rennes on Thursday, donned yellow hats on demonstrators in the style of Jaune Gillet.
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Natacha Guilmet, 50, from Vouven, Vendée, says she raises grass-fed Partenet beef for the high-quality “red label” beef sold in Paris’s top butchers. “But at the end of the month, I line up her bills on the mantelpiece and decide which ones to pay, because I can’t pay them all,” she says.
“I count the stamps on envelopes, I count the euros. We are not a dairy farm, but we milk cows to provide milk for our children. The prices middlemen pay for agricultural products are too low, while costs such as diesel and insurance are exploding. Consumers are being charged too much, and we respect it. It lacks dignity.”
At times, she says, she felt like she was working in a feudal system. “It’s like we’re being given crumbs…We’re made to feel stupid.”
Olivier Chemin, 54, who runs an organic dairy farm in Saint-Flambeau-de-Prières, Mayenne, says: He has been farming for 22 years. Despite the higher production costs of organic dairy products, prices are falling.
“This demonstration is about the future of agriculture and rural life in France. It concerns how we feed ourselves and the quality of our food. Imports that do not respect European or French rules “If the government doesn’t act, agriculture will collapse.”
Cemmin says suicide rates are rising among small-scale farmers, some of whom earn as little as 500 euros a month. He said small-scale farmers in France work more than 60 hours a week and spend hours each week filling out forms and processing paperwork.
Alexis, a 28-year-old cabbage farmer from Finistère in Brittany, says that like most people, she stays up late every night filling out paperwork after dinner. “It’s a matter of survival. You have to be able to earn an income from work.”
Michael, a fisherman from Concarneau, took part in the protest on behalf of “the world of the countryside against the city.” In France, he says, protests are the only way to get politicians heard. “Sometimes you have to burn or destroy things to get people to understand.”
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