Focus on France Ian Sparks reports from Paris

EURO-REPORT

FOCUS ON... France

Ian Sparks reports from Paris about the struggles of French farmers.

Farmers in France are committing suicide at a rate of almost 12 a week due to the economic downturn, excessive red tape and social isolation, campaigners in the agricultural industry have warned. Around 600 farmers kill themselves every year – with the mortality rate highest among cattle farmers aged between 45 and 64 years-old – making it the third most common cause of death for agricultural workers after cancer and heart disease. But despite the soaring suicide rate, which has doubled in the past eight years and is now 20 per cent higher than across France as a whole, little is being done to tackle the difficulties facing the industry, it was claimed this week. The highly sensitive issue sheds light on the vulnerability of those working in the beleaguered French farming sector, which frequently herds livestock through central Paris in protest at rising costs and plunging profits. There are multiple reasons behind the current escalating crisis hitting farmers, not just in France, but across Europe. The beef, pork and milk sectors have seen prices collapse because of both declining sales to China and the Russian embargo on most Western food imports in retaliation for sanctions over the Ukraine crisis. Grain and vegetable producers are also being hit hard as world prices nosedive. In addition, wholesalers, which have been engaged in a price war for several years, are demanding ever deeper cuts from suppliers, who are in turn squeezing farmers. Meanwhile, a mild winter has meant many growers are bringing produce to the market before they can find buyers. Pathogens heaped further woe on livestock farmers, with bluetongue disease ravaging cows and an outbreak of bird flu leading to several countries banning imports of foie gras. A recent report by France’s INVS health institute said they were in ‘no doubt’ that French farmer’s struggle to survive financially was the chief cause of the high suicide rate.

France’s Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll said three years ago that he was ‘aware that farmers’ financial difficulties can cause stress’ and he promised new measures aimed at boosting farmers’ incomes. But since then, suicide rates have climbed by 20 per cent.

Speaking out

Earlier this month, farmers in Charroux, western France, staged a symbolic march which concluded in a minute’s silence and flowers being left in memory of the dead farmers. More general protests have been rumbling on for months across the country.

In February, angry farmers heckled President Francois Hollande before tearing down a government stand at France’s annual agricultural fair against the backdrop of what they insist is the ‘worst crisis ever’ facing the agricultural industry. Livestock farmers from the FNSEA union booed and whistled as Hollande and agriculture minister Mr Le Foll made their way through the event site in a vast hall in southern Paris. Mr Hollande acknowledged that the crisis facing farmers is “exceptionally hard, exceptionally long, exceptionally generalised.” He added: “To come and exhibit in the context of so much difficulty and pain is a lovely act of patriotism. It is not compliments that farmers want but lasting policies.” Laurent Pinatel, spokesman of the national small farmers group Confederation Paysanne, told news agency AFP: “Agriculture is experiencing its worst crisis ever. There is a lot of worry on the farms, a lot of people are quitting because they feel there is no future,” Pinatel said that 5000 farmers are leaving the sector each year. Now those affected are increasingly starting to speak out about their experiences to break the taboo about suicide. Dairy farmer Louis Ganay, 35, who has personal experience of suicidal depression, told the BFM TV news channel: “Getting up early every day, knowing that in a month you’ll only be able to make 200 or 300 euros with 80 hours of work each week, is a real torture.” When 15 of his 50 cows died in 2014, Ganay was traumatised and suffered financial hardship which pushed him into depression, he said. He added: “With the physical fatigue, the psychological pressure, the bank that wants to give up on you, the death of the cows, I had no reason to live anymore.” Ganay was able to reach an agreement with his bank to spread out his debt repayment, and he also wrote about his problems on the Internet, receiving numerous letters of support, and he is now on the path to recovery.

And Francis Le Ferrand, whose farmer husband killed himself, told France 2 television: “It’s inhumane to work without pay. When you work 70 hours per week and there’s no pay at the end, believe me, it is very difficult to live.”

Jacques Jeffredo, a former farmer who studies the phenomenon of farmer suicide, is trying to raise awareness of the problem. He argues that the official estimates, which put the number of annual suicides at around 200, are a vast underestimate and the real figure is around 600 – partly due to the reluctance of relatives to speak about the tragic phenomenon. He told BFM TV: “As long as we see it as an illness, there is a sense of shame and as a result we don’t talk about it.”

Last October, Jeffredo set up 600 white crosses, similar to those used in military cemeteries, in front of Basilica Saint-Anne d’Auray in Brittany – the region with the highest suicide rate. He added: “For me, this image was important. Numerous anonymous people have died giving their lives for others, to feed us, to feed the population. They died for that.

“Now we need urgent action, not just words of sympathy, not just to save the farming industry, but farmers’ lives themselves.” n