Drop in for a natter about anything French related.
That, Biloute, is why some farmers go bankrupt : they're encouraged to "upgrade" then find they cannot keep up the payments necessary. Farming has always been good years and bad years and there's no doubt that climate change is having an effect on some sectors.
Round here farmers own parcels of land all over the place. They rip out all the hedges and trees and fill in the ditches to make one big section. They then pump chemicals into the land to get two crops a year and then expect to get sympathy when the ground floods and their crop is spoiled ?? The marais round here is almost devoid of wildlife, essential for our well-being. Those poor creatures that survive, hares and red-legged partridges, are then massacred by the local chasse. The number of birds and insects that come to visit our garden is a fraction of what it was when we first came to this area almost 9 years ago. I know this for sure because I spend a lot of time photographing them ... or these days, trying to find them.
By the way, I'm not anti farmers - my brother farms as do other members of my family and I spent some of my younger years working on a farm ..... I just despair of the practices of some of them today.
