Some are parked on roundabouts, traffic is “stagnant”: in Nîmes, farmers gathered around 7 a.m., at the meeting point at the Chamber of Agriculture. Pierrick Legrand,
President of Canton Nîmes Costières for Young Farmers, was live at 7 a.m. on France Bleu Gard Lozère. What do they criticize the MSA for? “They are criticized for a major lack of flexibility in terms of payments. Every day letters from bailiffs, emails, text messages, it's harassment. It's not that we choose not to pay, it's that we can't pay. Contributions that accumulate. A big mental load for us. There are many farmers who have major cash flow problems. For example, for an employee we pay around 1500 euros per month in charges to the MSA per month, 1000 for me, that's sums that accumulate and it's enormous.”
“I received another bailiff's letter yesterday”, he insists, it takes a long time for the money to come down, and for us to receive the aid”.
Mercosur? “We are always asked for more restrictive regulations. French farmers always work better. And besides that, Mercosur will bring in chickens with hormones, GMOs in cereals. So we don’t understand why we get slapped on the wrist all the time about regulations.”
“We will see if Europe prefers to sell German cars to Brazil, or support European agriculture”
Antoine Lifaut
France
