Promise of new legislation fails to quell French farmers’ anger
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00:00 About 200 demonstrators stormed the headquarters of the largest dairy products group in the world on Wednesday,
00:07 demanding higher payments for farmers.
00:10 Their action is part of a month of crippling nationwide protests
00:14 over what farmers say are burdensome environmental rules, inadequate wholesale prices,
00:19 and unfair competition from outside the EU.
00:23 "It was extremely important for us to be here at a time with a lot of discussion of farmers' problems,
00:29 our deep-seated anger and our need for higher prices and income.
00:33 Lactalis is a global and national symbol of companies that are predators of our labor."
00:39 Protests at Lactalis and other places across France came just hours after French Prime Minister
00:45 Gabriel Attal announced a new agricultural bill seeking to appease farmers' demands.
00:51 The legislation will create a new basis for negotiations between producers and wholesalers
00:57 to improve farmers' incomes, and will also make it easier for farmers to obtain visas for foreign seasonal workers.
01:04 These changes are on top of millions of euros recently paid out in emergency agricultural aid.
01:11 But farmers say it's not enough.
01:13 They are also pushing for revisions to EU laws that require 4 percent of farmland to remain fallow to protect biodiversity.
01:21 "We're not going to give up on this. There's a delegation going to Paris at the end of the week,
01:27 and if there's nothing at all on fallow farmland, it's certain we'll immobilize even more.
01:32 I don't think we're going to be able to hold people back any longer."
01:36 Should the protests continue in Paris, they threaten to disrupt France's National Agricultural Fair,
01:43 an important social and political event expected to be attended by President Emmanuel Macron.
01:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]