Why are farmers across France and the EU so angry right now? What makes them take to the streets in their hundreds and thousands? In this video, I'm taking you to a road blockade on the French A6 motorway at Nitry, in the Yonne department. Nearly 400 tractors there have cut off traffic between Lyon and Paris and are now preparing to move on to the French capital. Among the protesters are many union members, but also non-unionised farmers. And a lot of young people too. They all share a common grievance: While they feel their livelihoods are being crushed under a battery of different, sometimes conflicting demands - economic, societal, as well as environmental - they seem to be of little or no concern to politicians, industrialists and retailers. As I talk to them in earnest between the barricades, I realise that the future of agroecology is in the balance too!
What the farmers are asking for are decent working conditions, selling prices that cover their rising production costs, policies to encourage farm succession and the establishment of young farmers, as well as less bureaucratic red tape. All the young people I interviewed are open to some form of agroecological system, and indeed plan to adopt it in the near future, so to address the most pressing environmental and climate concerns. But their transition comes at a price. A price they can no longer afford on their own.
By way of explanation, because I know it's important: I contacted farmers from all the French unions. But it was to this roadblock, organised by the FNSEA and the French Young Farmers (JA), that Sébastien Neveux invited me to join him. Many thanks to Sébastien for his hospitality and his trust. The organising unions had invited farmers of all backgrounds to their protest, unionised or not. I even met a member of the Confédération paysanne there.
According to their trade unions, French farmers are calling for “strong measures” to ensure “dignity, fair pay and an administrative simplification” (FNSEA) and “economic support for the implementation of environmental and social standards” (Confédération paysanne).
Count on me to keep you updated on this historic outburst of rural anger. I’ll be sure to cover it from a wide range of actors in the agroecology and food sectors.
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Thanks also to Lucie @PleinLesYoeufsLesJoliesRousses, Alain, Eloïse, Océane and Julien for answering my questions.
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“Tous Terriens !” is an independent series, born from a sense of civic and professional duty to deliver quality information on the environmental and societal issues of our day. In keeping with this, I’ve self-financed this video.
Author and producer:
Pierre Girard
Co-author and camera,
translation and subtitles (FR/EN/DE):
Geoffrey Schöning
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27 янв 2024
