Taxi Drivers joining the Farmers' Protests

[Quiksilver]

if they decide to go into Paris, it could be carnage. The black blocks will have a field day.

What are black blocks, please, Blaze?

[Blaze]

if they decide to go into Paris, it could be carnage. The black blocks will have a field day.

What are black blocks, please, Blaze?

Remove the "k" written in haste and you have "Black Bloc" (it sounds the same). Rent-a-mob, casseurs, thugs .... guaranteed to wreck any peaceful manifestation.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_bloc

[Quiksilver]

Ah, thank you I wasn't up to speed on that expression.

[L Austin France]

Mme has to catch a 1750hrs ferry at Caen on Thursday & is fretting about getting there.
Our normal route is Roscoff-Plymouth but this route isn't open yet.
The journey from nr Concarneau to Caen & then Portsmouth-Devon is bad enough without the worry about getting there & maybe missing seeing her GD from Australia who's at her parent's house in Devon for a short while.
We've just heard from a friend who's wife works in a school canteen that school workers & others are on strike on thursday in support of the farmers but so far Brittany ferries cannot give any information as to whether the ferries will run.
Agree with 'em or not the farmers are causing chaos !

[niemeyjt]

It is interesting - the EU claims only France objects to Mercosur.

Will Macron have the balls to veto it and upset the EU - or will he sign and further upset the farmers?

[Biloute]

In France, our farmers produce all our food (perhaps not for much longer). This is not the case for Germany which needs to import food and also export the cars it produces. So Germany is very enthusiastic about Mercosur... not us ! Why should I eat crappy meat raised in Argentina so the Germans can sell their Mercedes ? I do all my shopping at local farmshops and I eat excellent quality Vendée beef, pork, chicken and vegetables every day. I don't pay more, too bad for Mr Leclerc or Mr Carrefour... French farmers are dying because of globalists (one of them commits suicide every 2 days), stupid standards and ridiculous prices. I completely support them ! Instead of contributing (€21 billion/year) to the EU, France would do better to help its farmers earn their living as they deserve. They are not asking for subsidies but to be able to sell their products at a fair price, not to suffer from stupid ecological standards and to leave them alone !

[exile]

How to reply without causing offence.

Firstly a question: have you ever eaten any of the crappy meat raised in Argentina?

I have and believe me I can see why French farmers are so worried. I have only once had what I would consider as excellent quality beef from French sources. It had been matured for 15 days and actually came up to the quality of good British beef - and that is far below the Argentinian beef I have eaten.

Unless you have documentary evidence to the contrary, the EU sets standards for goods and all legal imports have to meet or exceed those standards. This applies to foodstuffs just as much as it does to cars, toys or whatever. It is why it is almost impossible to get British meat products in the EU since Brexit because the cost of demonstrating that those standards have been met is so high. The same applies to most British cheese which can be just as difficult to authenticate as meeting the standards. Cheddar is the main exception and I strongly suspect that this is imported on the back of Macdo's needs as a topping to cheeseburgers.

Historically subsidies have been given to maximise EU home grown foods and reduce reliance on sometimes unstable supplies from outside the EU. They encouraged grain for bread and animal feed, they encouraged beet so that home grown sugar could be manufactured under extremely complex industrial processes, and so on.

And what happened when the EU's needs were met? There was an excess supply and this was exported. All well and good except that those subsidised EU products were in competition on the international markets with non-subsidised indigenous products, thus putting local farmers in Africa, Asia, S America and the like out of business.

This was essentially neo-agri-colonialisation. Not something we should be proud of in my opinion.

So when French farmers say they cannot compete, it means they cannot compete on quality and/or without the subsidies they cannot compete on the international markets. They will have to learn to improve their quality (of some products) and to produce more economically - so lower prices for the average consumer - or, alternatively, they need to diversify to produce products that the market wants and can be competitive.

[MAD87]

In France, our farmers produce all our food

Saddly, they don't. They produce about 40% of the food on sale in shops. So unless we're prepared to live on kiwis and Williams pears, or else pay twice or 3 times the cost of food that's imported, we're sunk and so are the farmers. In times of high inflation, average people can't afford to buy French. Fish, which I prefer to meat, has become a luxury.

[Lori]

Fish, which I prefer to meat, has become a luxury.

Ain't that the truth !

[Blaze]

+1 Mad. Sad but true. Many look at the price label, not where the item came from, often by necessity.