Some of the issues in the French agricultural sector are demographic changes that are not unique to France. The workforce in the sector is shrinking; from 2.5 million farmers in France in the 1950s, fewer than half a million remain today, according to France24.
The average age of a French farmer has also increased to 51.4, up from 50.2 in 2010, and France has lost 21% of its farms between 2010 and 2020. In 2020, the rate of suicide among farmers aged 15 to 64 was 43.2% higher than the national average, according to government figures cited by France24.
The prime minister met with officials from the FNSEA farmers’ union, the country’s largest, in Paris on Tuesday evening, France24 reported. Talks among other EU leaders to address the issues are ongoing, as the 2024 Olympic Games, set to begin in six months in Paris, loom large.
Farmer protests have cropped up across the European Union in recent months, including in Italy and Germany. An EU-wide group of Catholic bishops has expressed their support for the protests.
“While we strongly support the goal of a sustainable future for all in the European Union, we share farmers’ concerns about the sustainability of small- and medium-sized businesses and the future of our rural areas,” said the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) on Tuesday.
“The agricultural sector plays an essential role in providing affordable, high-quality food, revitalizing our rural areas, and caring for our landscapes,” the COMECE statement said. “At the same time, statistics show a continuous decline in the number of small- and medium-sized farms, coupled with the risk of farmers aging.”
COMECE called for listening and dialogue as equals to gain “greater recognition for their hard work,” “an understanding of their concerns, and, above all, an appreciation for those who feed us.”
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