Focus on France Ian Sparks reports from Paris

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FoCus on... France

Ian Sparks reports from Paris on the plight of French farmers.

The crisis in the French agriculture industry has been poignantly summed up by one struggling French farmer who mowed the word ‘HELP’ in giant letters into his wheat field in the Loire valley. His desperate plea for aid from the government comes after official figures released this month stated that more than a tenth of France’s 400,000 farms are now in a ‘situation of extreme urgency’. Last year, half of French farmers earned less than 350 euros a month, far below the national poverty threshold of 800 euros, the government statistics agency said.

The plight of agricultural workers is now eroding the fabric of rural life in Europe’s leading farming nation, and as farmers see their livelihoods evaporate, more and more are giving up, along with an alarming spike in suicides over recent years. Farmer Jacques Fortin, 63, whose 50 metre high letters ‘HELP’ can be clearly seen by passing aircraft, said: “Political leaders do not listen to us. They’re deaf to our anger. I hope they’re not blind and will read this message of despair. I live in a world where I have the responsibilities of a chief executive and I live below the poverty threshold. It’s not normal to live with 350 euros a month when you work every day. Some break down. Others commit suicide.”

Fortin, whose farm is in Athee-sur-Cher near the central town of Tours, added: “When planes pass overhead and start to descend to Orly airport, the passengers can see my SOS, which is a collective cry for help on behalf of all farmers. In fact, it was the pilot of a small plane who sent me the first photo by email. We have had successive years of bad weather conditions in the past four years. Farmers are at the end of their tether. They are fed up.”

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 their annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. A nosedive in prices of grain and vegetables has hit producers hard, while wholesalers selling to supermarkets are demanding ever deeper cuts from suppliers, who are in turn squeezing farmers. Outbreaks of blue tongue disease was a severe blow to cattle farmers, while bird flu lead several countries to ban imports of foie gras. The most tragic impact of their deepening woes was a spike in the suicide rate of farmers in 2016 to almost 12 a week, or around 600 a year, making suicide the third most common cause of death for agricultural workers after cancer and heart disease. A recent report by France’s INVS health institute said they were in ‘no doubt’ that financial problems were the chief cause of the high suicide rate among farmers. But Marie-Therese Denieul of the farmers’ insurance association the Sociale Agricole said there were other reasons to blame as well as poverty. She told French daily Le Figaro: “There are three main reasons. Severe financial pressures, social isolation and the proliferation of government red tape, controls and administrative procedures.”

Despair

Public protests are now a weekly event in France, with agricultural workers herding cattle through towns, driving tractors along the Champs-Elysee boulevard in Paris or heaping tons of manure outside the government’s agriculture ministry. The leading candidate in May’s presidential election was heckled when he visited a farming trade show in central France, prompting two other candidates to cancel appearances at similar shows. President Francois Hollande came to power in 2012 ago vowing to address the plight of the sector, but five years later average earnings are 15 per cent lower and the suicide rate is 12 per cent higher.

Laurent Pinatel, spokesman for 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 farms, and a lot of people are quitting because they feel there is no future.” 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 fifteen 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.” Jeffredo, who 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 - added: “For me, this image was important.” n