Farmers’ demonstrations
31 January 2024
Preserving our future! Let’s protect our farmers!
More than ever at Lagache, we support the farmers’ revolt! Farmers feel abandoned by the public authorities, and they’re worried. Many of them can’t make it any more, many of them can’t earn any more money – it’s a tragedy!
On many issues – plant protection products, taxation, labour costs, etc. – a gulf has opened up between France and our European neighbours, and an abyss with countries further afield. Successive governments are responsible for this and have supported it.
Phytosanitary products – the subject that particularly irritates me – is in my view the most worrying. Every week, on the pretext of washing whiter than white, a new phyto is banned in France. The result: lower yields, lower quality, poor health and higher costs. As a result, products are being thrown out of the market and are no longer finding their place. Producers are disgusted, and some are ruined, so they stop producing, and rightly so. Meanwhile, fruit and vegetables from elsewhere, grown using standards and pesticides that are banned in France, are taking their place! How can you not be disgusted!
So yes, producers and their various trade unions are right to revolt and denounce these profound inconsistencies!
I don’t agree with you on this point: why attack supermarkets, which are the main outlet for fresh fruit and vegetables and also, over the course of a season, a lucrative outlet! There’s no point in shooting the ambulance. In daily practice, distributors and French retailers in general are willing to sell fruit and vegetables from French production areas. But sometimes the price differences are such that they have no choice but to sell imported products, not “instead of” but “in addition to” French products. Let’s not listen to the micro-trotters: “Madam, do you prefer to buy fruit and vegetables from France or elsewhere? What a question! Faced with fruit and vegetable shelves showing huge price differences, and with purchasing power under extreme pressure – a topical issue – patriotism is quickly forgotten!
The solution is to make our farmers competitive again, and this is largely in the hands of our politicians.
