Farmers Bring the Country to Paris

(Photo: Philippe Wojazer/Reuters
Visitors walked on the Champs-Élysées near the Arc de Triomphe monument in Paris
on Sunday during a two-day farm event.)

> Must have been quite a site! Food production- especially by way of natural means (sans the chemicals, hormones, pesticides, etc) is hard work and something that most of us take for granted. The whole notion of "cheap" whether in relation to food or clothes I think is rightfully becoming less and less popular. If we're talking about our sources being local, organic and fair wages are being paid- though it might seem more costly initially... but I think it pays off in the long run. Nothing is really cheap. See previous post on Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices, which discusses this further HERE.

Straight to the Source
By Scott Sayare
May 23, 2010

PARIS — French farmers ride their tractors into Paris from time to time to confront Parisians and the government with one complaint or another about agricultural issues, but on Sunday the French Young Farmers union instead brought the sights and scents of the countryside to Paris as its members covered a long stretch of the Champs-Élysée with miniature fields of wheat and sunflower.

“These Parisians, in the summer, they leave to go see the country,” said William Villeneuve, the president of the Young Farmers union. “We’re bringing them the country, on their avenue.”

It was perhaps its sheer incongruity that drew massive crowds to the avenue that the French call the most beautiful in the world. The federation said that about 150,000 plants covered more than 3 hectares, or 7.4 acres, of the avenue. Farms animals — sheep, pigs and at least four breeds of cows — were held in pens along the avenue.

French farmers have seen incomes plummet in recent years — in 2009, they sank 34 percent from 2008 levels — and have been vocal in their demands for government assistance. But organizers said the event was not meant as a political statement, but rather as an opportunity for city-dwellers to interact with farmers and the rural world.

“The people worry about the animals,” said Nicolas Mousnier, 29, who raises sheep in Limoges, standing in a straw pit, watching over a herd of 40 sheep, a massive black sow and eight squealing piglets. “This connection still exists. We have to maintain it.”

He had spent much of his day reassuring visitors that the animals were not uncomfortable in the sun, he said. Nearby, onlookers craned over wood fencing to photograph a massive, heaving black sow on mobile phones.

Some saw in the crowds a measure of this city’s unfamiliarity with the natural world.

“You can see that they’re cut off from nature,” said Daniel Millet, 66, returning down the avenue with his wife from a hike outside the city. “People are truly curious about what they’re seeing.”

The event cost €4.2 million, or $5.3 million. Planners had anticipated two million visitors over two days, and the vast crowds on Sunday suggested that their expectations would be met, the police said.

The European Union’s farm subsidy program, which last year cost €45.7 billion, expires in 2013, and the Union’s 27 members start negotiations this year on a new deal, according to Bloomberg News. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has said in recent months he would not accept further deregulation of agriculture when the Union updates its Common Agricultural Policy the program.

France is the European Union’s largest agricultural producer and biggest aid recipient, with 2009 output of €63.7 billion , or 19 percent of the bloc’s total agricultural production.