'We're not playing by the same rules': French farmers on protests - BBC News

Farmers like Yves Coppé are concerned about the future of farming and the government's policies.

12 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsClimateImage caption, Yves Coppé has been heavily involved in the recent farmers' protests near ParisBy Andrew HardingBBC News, Mousseaux les Bray, Paris regionLike many farmers, in France and far beyond, Yves Coppé finds much to worry about these days. If you ask him to list his troubles, he likes to start with a story about hundreds of thousands of missing baguettes.

Standing by a huge barn on a gentle green hillside, some 120km (75 miles) southeast of Paris, the 39-year-old surveyed the 300 hectares, of wheat, rape seed and a few other crops, that he inherited from his parents. An engraving on an old stone arch nearby dates the farm's origins back to 1787.

"It's just not sustainable," he said.

Coppé was just back from helping to organise one of the nationwide protests that has seen farmers block French motorways with tractors and bales of hay. He's the head of the local young farmers' association in the Seine-et-Marne department, which has been closely involved in co-ordinating the convoys of farm vehicles.

"Don't your English farmers do this?" he asked, explaining that such organised demonstrations and disruptions have always been the way that he and his colleagues got their government's attention.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68173000?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

---