EU subsidies don’t save real farmers

Dec 29, 2009 English 1st Paragraph

Farmers’ anger had been simmering for some time. First they took their cows to Brussels, hoping to mark minds with a spectacular demonstration. The protests spread, moving from region to region across Europe, from Scotland to Wales, from Spain all the way to Romania.

Then last Thursday before dawn, young French farmers dumped 10 tonnes of hay in front of the president’s living quarters, the Elysée palace. They hoped the media coup would help getting political attention to their grievances, but they were quickly ousted by police forces armed with tear gas instead. Damien Greffin, president of the Ile de France region’s young farmers association, explained that such an act of dissent was a last resort in their attempts to get their plight noticed: "Farming is dying…

Read this on the Guardian.