Cluzo Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 We went to Nantes for lunch and a good window shop today .The tram finished a stop away from the town centre and we had to walk . The cross roads was choc a bloc with tractors and farmers with white hats having picnics in the middle of the road . Later at about 3.30 a march started past . a French bloke rushing past warned us to get out of the way as there were 3 Kilometres of marchers and Tractors on their way .Being nosey we repaired to a Bar to watch. Amazing - !! tractors 3 abreast chugged past from all over the vendee -some chucked straw off their trailers and was set alight . Horns blowing ! noise- smoke -.No police to be seen . We left to catch our tram at 5 and it was still in progress -What was it in aid of?????? the whole of the centre of Nantes was cut off whilst we were there !!1 So anyone know Why so many farmers are protesting against Sarky ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 "Operation Escargot" arrived at a city near you!SEE HERE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissie Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 Isn't it something to do with milk?.....er.....er....maybe[8-)]Chrissie (81)Edit - obviously not!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 Watch the French news now...http://info.france2.fr/france/Journ%C3%A9e-d-action-des-agriculteurs-58136299.htmlAlso http://www.letelegramme.com/ig/generales/france-monde/france/manifs-paysannes-1-000-agriculteurs-a-rennes-2-000-a-nantes-diapo-16-10-2009-612342.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluzo Posted October 16, 2009 Author Share Posted October 16, 2009 Sorry my French is poor and our TV is UK so I cant make out WHY ??? . other than its just this years Farmers protest. I notice one of the letters commented that all the tractors were new and they cost E100,000. Thats what we thought ! we gave up working what they all cost when we got to one billion Euros . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 The whole thing seems to be based on a lowering of payments. I think it started with protests about milk prices, then went from there. It all certainly seems huge!GG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 Lait, légumes et fruits, viticulture, viande bovine et porcine, céréales: en août, les prix agricoles ont baissé de 2,5% par rapport à juillet et de 15% sur un an, selon l'Insee.Source" Milk, Fruit and vegetables, wine production, pork and beef, cereals: in August the prices fell 2.5 % since July, and have fallen 15% in a year"There have been many programmes in the news recently about the fact that the price paid to farmers doesn't even meet the costs of production, and also the fact that there is a big disparity between the price they receive and that the consumer pays.Another article hereEven if your French isn't perfect you can read with a Google translation, or if you use Firefox with the QTL add on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 It isn't even a problem unique to France. I also lived in a farming community in the UK, and I really don't get the economics, particularly for small farmers. A close friend of mine is a sheep farmer in Kent. After she has fed and reared her lambs, paid for all the innocultions required by law, done all the paperwork etc, the amount she gets per kilo is derisory compared to what we pay on average for lamb in the supermarkets. She barely breaks even and without her husband's income from another profession, they would not survive. I'm really surprised people want to carry on in farming given the hours they put in and the slender rewards, and yet they do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keni Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 We were over in St.Mathieu during Aug/Sept and they had a farm fair there. There was a milking demonstration and the farmers were giving away half litres of milk all day. They were basically milking the cow, putting the milk into a chiller and then selling the milk once they had bottled it. The farmer explained they would rather give away the fresh milk because of the price they were given by the supermarkets and other purchasers (where has that been heard before I wonder?). The fresh milk was a taste of my childhood - fresh (brucellosis tested) milk.We were talking to a farmer who has/is setting up a milk machine of her own - she supplies the milk daily and you purchase it - fresh and chilled. I think she was setting it up in Chasseneuil or Cherves Chatelars? She was a British farmer, now farming in France, met her at an evening market at Champniers, she now sells her own cheese and was starting making her own clotted cream. We wished her all the best and I think the milk machine would be a great idea for our small village as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 The harvest this year seems to have been exceptional which is leading to low prices all round, but not reflected substantially in the supermarkets. Farmers never complain when prices are high; they just buy bigger tractors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patf Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 There was to be a big demo in Toulouse yesterday. The Midi Pyrenees is supposed to have a bigger problem than other regions with an average income for farmers of 14000€ as compared with 21000€ elsewhere. Numbers of exploitations have dropped by 22% in 8 years, as farmers have retired or just sold up so there are fewer but bigger farms. You don't see much land just abandonned.Many farmers have two jobs. An example is our mayor who farms and works in a woodyard (and acts as mayor.) I don't think the farmers here seem to be rich at all - they seem to be just managing.Most of the heavy machinery around this area is owned by cooperatives and then hired out. Evidently Jacques Chirac's lot were more sympathetic to the farmers than the current govt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mareille Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 I Have never met a businessman who complains when the price is high and I always thought it was good business practice to invest in your machinery when times are goodChris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisb Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 The new tractor of course will actually belong to the bank for a good while to come.A dairy farmer near us could no longer afford to employ his stockman so went to the bank for a loan or extended overdraft. The bank said they couldn't possibly do that but they would give him a loan to install a robotic milking parlour so he wouldn't need the stockman.Brilliant solution - one more recruit for the unemployed, the farmer further in unaffordable debt but the bank laughing all the way to the proverbial.He hasn't had any beef cattle this year after making a loss last year and agreed with the point above about having had a good wheat crop but not getting much for it. Though as he wryly observed the price of bread in the boulangerie has remained at the levels it went up to when there was a wheat shortage a couple of years back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre ZFP Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Big demo in Luxembourg expected today as +/- 5000 farmers converge on the meeting of agricultural ministers.The demo is centred on a place called the Kirchberg. Normally a very busy financial district and main traffic thoroughfare, is has been closed off which is a pain as I work there.Made it in to work OK this morning. Took the bike in the car to a place 5kms away and cycled through the woods and got here about 7:30. LOTS of police around with barbed wire barricades (this being Lux the barricades are all new and freshly painted :-)) Avenue JFK is now shut completely making it quite spooky. Auchan mega shopping complex is shut for the day as is the Autumn fair. Coach loads of protesters with flags and banners are starting to turn up. Watch this space for developments !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 [quote user="Pierre ZFP"]Big demo in Luxembourg expected today as +/- 5000 farmers converge on the meeting of agricultural ministers. LOTS of police around with barbed wire barricades[/quote] On the French news this AM, they're saying Lux. has asked police Belgium to help them "maintain order"... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 I think the real problem is that although farmers are not seeing a profit (or are making a loss) on their produce, the big supermarket chains still manage to cream off quite a nice percentage. The farmers want the government to help them out with financial aid, but a fairer approach would be to force supermarket giants to pay a fair price for the produce in the first place.Why should the state subsidise supermarket profits? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 I talked about this to the farmer who sells fresh yoghurt and cheese on our marché paysanne.He manages to get by because he doesn't just rely on selling his milk. He and his family look after the cattle, do the milking, transform the milk into popular dairy products, run a shop on the farm and a market stall. Like that he has nobody else making margins on his milk, but it is only possible on the small scale in which he operates.At the same time his products are excellent and he has a faithful clientèle.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Sadly, Norman, not every farmer has the nous to run a retail business alongside his/her farm. Diversification is great but it does highlight the fact that it seems virtually impossible to make a decent living out of good old-fashioned food production these days. Why should farmers have to be retailers as well?Ultimately,farming is the one industry few of us can do without (OK, we can do without meat, but not without food!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 But we can (could have done?) do without the supermarkets abuse of their monopoly.But how can one turn the clock back now they have such power and control?I would love to see a return to local collective dairies and doorstep deliveries and would pay more for it.On a frankly quite depressing guided patrimoine tour of our local town I saw the derelict building that was the collective milk processing plant, no-one was even quite sure when it closed but the early 70's was muted, I asked if there were doorstep deliveries but I think that the answer was no, I only think because nobody could understand the concept and thought it must have been my bad French.Were there ever Ernies in France? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre ZFP Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Pretty low key here in Lux at the moment. A hundred or so tractors and a few hundred walkers all outnumbered by the local cops and those brought in from Belgium.The farmers have completely blocked the main road and walked off, well I suppose it is lunch time.I was expecting more protestors. Maybe this is just the cream, it could all go sour later this afternoon. Oh well, hard cheese [Www] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre ZFP Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 All the tractors have completely blocked Blv JFK now, at the junction by Auchan. They then wandered off for a nice lunch. One of the tractors was actually towing a trailer load of beer! I think lunch must be over now as I can see black smoke rising and the cops mustering for a rumble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 [quote user="Chancer"]Were there ever Ernies in France?[/quote]I used to know of one but he changed his name....[Www] (Sorry.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Coops, please check your PMs, there's a good poster! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maude Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Yep.7 years ago when we arrived here SE Vendee,all the tractors were the normal seen evrywhere in Rurope.In the lst 2 years or so,the tractors are the size of an aircraft carrier,all new,fitted with all mod cons it appears,and there are many many more of them.Guess whos payed for them!!!A normal rural D road is now like the M25.I dont think they (farmers) can walk anymore. Maude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mareille Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 .Guess whos payed for them!!!That would be the farmer who bought itChris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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