Written by Michael Thervil
Video by Global NEWS
If you haven’t been keeping up with what’s going on in France concerning the French farmers and the French Government, now is the time to do so. With French President Emmanual Macron somehow allowing even more of an increase of the rampant taxation towards farmers that’s been going on for decades while simultaneously decreasing their wages, with many of the farmers being small in size. In short, the overwhelming majority of French farmers are protesting and fighting not only for their right to capitalize off of their agricultural base, but they are fighting and protesting the French Government for their economic livelihoods. But there’s more.
In conjunction with the decades of ever-increasing taxes, high tariffs, and drastically low earnings French farmers had to endure, they are also fighting and protesting the French government because of the government turned a blind eye and allowed unfair competition from other countries that are oversaturating and outright flooding their agriculture sector with cheap goods. Another agricultural issue that has French farmers in an uproar is the fact that grocery prices are skyrocketing at the register at a staggering 14% due to the rampant amounts of inflation because of everything that is going on in the French agricultural sector.
French farmers and their supporters have been protesting for a little over a week to date. Moreover, not only are the farmers demonstrating their protest against the perceived neglect from the French Government, but they are protesting because of the high inflation at the grocery stores, low wages, and unfair competition by burning tires in the streets, rioting, refusing to work on their lands, thus invoking a food shortage across the country and now they are utilizing their tractors to create several large blockades within the streets of France and along the country’s borders with Spain until the socio-economic issues that they are facing get rectified.
Photo by Reuters
In contrast, the big food processing companies in France are citing a reason for the high price inflation for the food they provide to the French public. The biggest reason is because of soaring energy costs followed by employee wage increases, and the rising cost of logistical transport amongst a whole list of other things. When you look at the situation, the arguments presented by both sides can be seen as valid. However, with both sides appearing to have valid reasons that are contributing to the present outcomes we are seeing; currently the root of all the chaos is either unknown or speculative at best. But it could be said that decades of not maintaining a system of checks and balances, combined with the French Government not holding major food companies accountable, and allowing politics to enter and dominate the realm of agriculture could be the source of what France is going through and the rest of the world is witnessing.
The French Government is currently working on scoring some kind of deal between the farmers and the agricultural unions that represent them. Can they reach an agreement in time? Our bet is that they will; and the reason for this is simple. If people can’t afford food to eat, there will be chaos in the streets. Remember food, clothing, and shelter are considered the most essential things humans require when you examine Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. If the basic needs of people are not met, they will ascend into chaos by default.
When that happens all forms of government and law-enforcement agencies will lose their legitimacy and when that happens, there may not be any coming back from that and something else will be socially constructed to take their place. It seems as if the pendulum is swinging back into the favor of small business and in the case of France small farmers. The only question remaining is: “What’s stopping the pendulum from swinging back on to the side of the average everyday worker in France?
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