Between 150 and 200 farmers driving their tractors, trailers and cars converged on Tuesday morning towards the center of Lyon, carrying out snail operations, in order to demand in particular better remuneration. “We need to be able to make a decent living from our trades, that our products have a fair price,” says Jocelyn Dubost, president of the region’s Young Farmers.
The organizers decided to mark the occasion a few days before the opening of the Agricultural Show. Similar operations also took place in the cities of Clermont-Ferrand and Nîmes.
Dumpsters of liquid manure and plant waste
The demonstrators present in Lyon first gathered in front of the DREAL (Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning and Housing), where they dumped a few dumpsters of liquid manure and other plant waste, before heading towards the prefecture, where again dumpsters were emptied around it. Farmer representatives were received at 2 p.m. by the regional prefect.
“We are forbidden ways of producing, without offering any solution in the face, we are putting total sectors at risk, like the cherry in our region”, threatened by the Asian fly, deplores Jocelyn Dubost. Edith Cabello, vegetable and fruit producer in Ardèche, also came to say her fed up. “We are being deprived of the phytos [pesticides]I am a producer of cherries, we will no longer be able to produce them, they are inedible, ”she says.
Pressure from large surfaces
Too expensive harvest insurance, problems of installation for young people, pressure from supermarkets… “We can’t make a living from our profession. We have a strong social and fiscal pressure which is far too important, after having suffered a lot of climatic hazards, ”lists the farmer.
In the Puy-de-Dôme, a dozen farmers have invested in a large area near Clermont to stick stickers “the supermarket is getting fat, the farmer sells at a loss”. “We sell half of our products at a loss. We come to our house to buy us cows, we are told it’s such a price or you keep them, we can’t afford to keep our production”, concludes Julien Tixier, a young 25-year-old farmer in mixed farming and livestock who “70 hours a week for 800 euros”.