French farmers protesting low prices

Farmers have burned tires and blocked roads

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

In a response to what they feel are low prices for milk, beef, pork and vegetables, farmers in France are protesting and have taken some serious measures to show their frustration.

Farmers feel the prices charged for those items don’t cover the cost of production and feel the $650 million U.S. agricultural support package the government announced in July is not enough to help them get out financial trouble.

As a result, farmers have taken to blocking streets and dumping tires and hay on the streets before setting them on fire.

Frank Guéhennec, president of the Morhiban agricultural union, told France Info that taking these measures is the “only way to be heard and to show the disarray in our country.”

This is not the first time French farmers have taken extreme actions to show their displeasure.

In November 2014, farmers dumped tons of manure and rotten vegetables on city streets, and sprayed a government building with slurry to protest rising costs of fertilizer and collapsing food prices.

Canadian farmers are no strangers to protest – they just do it in a very “Canadian” way.

When it was revealed that dairy concessions may be part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, farmers drove tractors and walked dairy cows to Parliament Hill on September 29, 2015.