Opinion: Tractor blockades would just ‘irritate’ supporters
© MAXPPP/AlamyStock I hear rumours of British farmers wanting to mirror the protests in Europe. French farmers are using their tractors as a show of defiance.
Echoing the spirit of Mary Antoinette, their protests demand: “Let us eat cake.”
See also: Opinion – future farmers must be able to wear many hats
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They are picketing about two things: over-regulation, and wanting more regulation.
On the one hand, demanding less red tape and on the other, more protectionist trade policies (largely in opposition to the Mercosur negotiations).
But French history shows us you can’t have your cake and eat it.
Jerome Bayle, an ex-professional rugby player who returned to the family farm following his father’s suicide, has been credited with galvanising the protest.
Monsieur Bayle wants to bring attention to the perilous future of family farms.
The Times described France “as a country that sees its agriculture as a core element of the national identity and the purveyor of gastronomic excellence, where more than three-quarters of people have expressed support for the protests in polls conducted in recent days”.
Imagine how Le Monde would describe British farming were the protests this side of the channel. “In a country which identifies more with football than farming, British people aren’t sympathetic,” it might say.
“Their farmers voted for Brexit so shouldn’t moan about new policies.”
My Canadian wife has just returned from rural France. She has a quiet admiration for the French farmers. “Aren’t they fighting for the same things that you get frustrated about? So why do British farmers just suck it up?”
Contrary to newspaper reports, Claude, the local mayor and a former farmer, told my wife that there is local sympathy in the sentiment, but not in the chaos.
Perhaps what we read is edited to suit the political message. Just as Brits are led to believe every farmer voted for Brexit.
Claude felt a resolution would be easier to achieve if their farming unions acted cohesively. But the underlying gripe goes beyond the farm gate.
French farmers are angry at financial incentives and tax breaks enjoyed by the large supermarkets such as E.Leclerc and Carrefour. This all sounds very familiar.
The French love a strike, but in the UK, you only need to look at the bad press dished out to junior doctors to get a sense of how the British respond to them.
Our economy is less rural than France’s, and therefore less sympathetic.
To bring attention to our circumstance, we need an approach more in step with 2024 than 1984, and more effective than throwing soup at a famous painting.
A perfect storm of low margins and removal of farm support have the potential to signal the end of swathes of underperforming or disenchanted family farming businesses in the UK.
This tipping point could occur in a few years, not decades, and be destructive to the fabric of the country, not just the countryside.
Meanwhile, mental illness and obesity soar – along with their estimated annual costs of £105bn and £95bn respectively.
The proven antidotes are healthy diet and access to biophilia. What and who holds the key? Health professionals, nutritionists, food processors, retailers, farmers and land managers.
An amalgam of those sectors campaigning/protesting in a way that could positively impact the 20-25 million sufferers of mental health challenges or obesity feels far more strategic and effective than tractor blockades to myopically help 100,000 farmers and irritate countless potential supporters.