Tractors hold up Paris in farmer protest

Thousands of angry farmers rode into central Paris on tractors emblazoned with slogans like, "Our charges are killing us" - a reference to financial pressures they say are compounded by high labor costs and shrinking returns for milk and meat.

"The prices are low," said Mathieu, a 20-year-old dairy farmer from the northern region of Picardie. "There are more and more rules. Rules are necessary but the prices don't follow the extra costs," he added, from atop his tractor.

The vehicles traveled through morning rush hour at an average speed of 22 miles, or 35 kilometers per hour, and congregated at the Nation roundabout in the east of the city. Congestion wasn't as bad as feared, because many commuters heeded authorities' advice to leave their cars at home and take public transportation.

Long trip for a tractor

The descent on Paris ended a long journey for some farmers, who trekked to Paris from all reaches of the country. French media reported that the first farmers to begin trickling into the city came from Brittany, some 282.7 miles away - a 13-hour drive by tractor.

Police said they counted more than 1,300 protesters driving their farm equipment into town, while the demonstration's organizers spoke of more than 1,700.

It was the year's latest high-profile stunt aimed to raise awareness of the plight of French farmers, who say unfair competition from abroad is undercutting their margins and endangering their livelihoods.

"What we're asking for today is three or four cents more on a burger," said Xavier Beulin, head of France's leading farmers' union FNSEA, told iTele.

The farmers bemoan on the one hand falling prices for their products, and on the other French regulations that stipulate higher pay for field workers, which the protestors say makes them less competitive on a European scale.

Creative defiance

Earlier this summer, French farmers set up roadblocks on the border to Germany, denying passage to trucks carrying food from France's eastern neighbor. In other acts of defiance, farmers also dumped manure in cities and prevented tourists from reaching the popular Mont St.-Michel island in Normandy.

On Thursday, some farmers had spray-painted the buckets of their tractors with the words, "Help us, we're dying." One particularly morbid display of discontent saw a farmer hang a dummy from his tractor to represent farmers who had committed suicide as France's agricultural situation worsens.

The farmers have long demanded action from politicians, saying theirs is not only a French problem, but a European one too, as farmers across the Continent struggle to remain competitive globally. A government aid package of 600 million euros (664 million dollars) was announced in July, but many farmers said money alone wouldn't solve the problem.

Emanuelle Enot, a farmer from Brittany, summed it up as follows: "We are the best farmers in the world, but the controllers are the toughest with us."

glb/jm (AFP, Reuters, dpa)