French farmers converged in the heart of Paris today (Friday, February 23) to highlight the “continued difficulties” facing agriculture in France and their concerns that farming is “disappearing”.
The agricultural union, Rural Coordination, had mobilised its members to return “peacefully” to Paris today as part of its ongoing campaign to “save agriculture”.
A convoy of tractors travelled through Paris ahead of the 60th Salon de l’Agriculture which opens tomorrow – the country’s largest agricultural show which attracts thousands of visitors and exhibitors each year.
Rural Coordination’s members drove their tractors to Place Vauban where they had invited everyone including “simple citizens, elected officials” to come meet with farmers whose “mission is to feed all their fellow citizens”.
The union said that it was fighting for agriculture “that feeds all French people well and allows us to live from our work”.
It also highlighted its concerns about the “rules imposed on us” that it claims create disparities between French people.
“The wealthiest among them eat better and better and in an increasingly sustainable manner from our French products.
“The less off eat imported food, which is of lower quality and harmful to the environment.
“This unacceptable situation also reduces us to an increasingly precarious situation, which forces us to survive by depending on aid from Europe,” Rural Coordination stated.
The organisation plans to “carry the voice of farmers” throughout this year’s Salon de l’Agriculture and has urged farmers to make their voices heard during the event.
Earlier this week the French Prime Minister unveiled a new “agricultural orientation bill” that he said would recognise “in black and white our objective of agricultural and food sovereignty”.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said that the new law would place “agriculture among the fundamental interests of the nation, in the same way as our security or our national defense”.
“It is the reminder that there is no country without farmers, there is no France without agriculture,” he had stated.
But one of the largest farming unions in France, FNSEA, has also taken to the streets to protest today calling on the French government to make a “real” change for agriculture.
It also intends to use the Salon de l’Agriculture as a showcase to highlight “agricultural values” and show the “essential link between agriculture and food”.