AGRICULTURE
French farmers descend on Paris
Legions of French farmers are descending on Paris to protest falling prices for agricultural goods and high taxes. They say unfair competition from abroad undercuts their margins and endangers their livelihoods.
Highways leading to the French capital were partially blocked on Thursday by caravans of angry dairy farmers making their way to a massive demonstration at the Place de la Nation in the city's central quarter.
By mid-day, thousands of tractors emblazoned with slogans like, "Our charges are killing us," were expected to crowd downtown Paris.
It was the latest high-profile demonstration meant to draw attention to financial pressure on farmers, compounded by high labor costs and shrinking returns for milk and meat.
The farmers bemoan on the one hand falling prices for their products. On the other, they say French regulations stipulating higher pay for field workers make them less competitive on a European scale.
Not just a French problem
Earlier this summer, French farmers set up roadblocks on the border to Germany, denying passage to trucks carrying food from France's eastern neighbor.
The farmers have demanded action from politicians. On Thursday, a delegation from France's largest farming union, the FNSEA, was scheduled to attend a meeting in the French parliament and speak with French Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
The plight of the famers in France -no stranger to disruptive, showy protests - highlights a broader problem across Europe's agricultural sector, which is struggling to remain competitive globally.
A pan-European protest is set to take place in Brussels next Monday as EU agriculture ministers convene.
cjc/hg (AP, dpa, AFP
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