Comments on: Spare a thought for French farmers

By: Boris

Boris — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:00:37 +0000

Hi, the point I was trying to make is that the French farmers aren’t always in the wrong – our dairy farmer friend will make a big loss this year through events out of his control, and the two French farmers I go cycling with are the last people I’d expect to go out causing trouble or damage. To some extent I can see their grievance when they are paid very low prices for their produce and then see the supermarkets applying a very large mark-up.
That isn’t to say that I support any actions that cause damage or disruption – because I most definitely don’t – any more than I support the common agricultural policy or the local farmers who quietly pull down ancient hedgerows and then get grants to plant new trees. Just that there are ‘two sides to every coin’, and I do think that many farmers in France are just trying to get along the best they can.

By: M. Le Pelley

M. Le Pelley — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:24:57 +0000

I find it quite incredible that you are actually asking people to spare a thought for french farmers. Brussels may be playing about with the prices that farmers receive, but it also applies to the British farmer, and when you get the Breton retard farmer physically destroying private property and obstructing everybody else from going about their daily business unhindered, they are not derserving of any respect or attention. Yes, I live in France, and yes, today the childish behaviour of these mentally inept people have denied me my basic right to go about my chores on three seperate occasions.

By: Steven

Steven — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:20:45 +0000

Tesco is much cheaper. That doesn’t seem to deter locals though. There is definitely a market for well presented, locally grown produce.

By: Boris

Boris — Mon, 25 May 2009 09:25:17 +0000

Steven, is the produce also less expensive than from Tesco? The UK farm shops I used to know produced very high quality produce, but it was always at a premium price.

By: Steven

Steven — Mon, 25 May 2009 08:51:39 +0000

You are basically talking about farm shops. We have a very good farm shop near us (in the UK). You can buy a range of prepared meat, eggs, butter, cheese, vegtables, etc. All the produce is grown on the farm and they have obviously invested to be able to produce these things in a way that makes them fit for sale to the public. However, it seems to do very well and the procude is invariably better tasting from the farm shop than it is from Tesco.