The "agriculteurs en colere" have featured in our columns recently and now they have been blockading entrances to the Jazz in Marciac festival. This is France's foremost jazz festival, attracting musicians of world stature to the small town in the Gers. But farmers were "controlling" cars as they enter the site in case the Minister of Agriculture tried to get in during his visit to the region yesterday. They also checked restaurants to ensure that their meat is French, pasting up posters indicating "French meat" or "meat from anywhere" as appropriate.
Farmers may have a legitimate case for the price they are paid for their produce, but that is between them, the customers and the government and it seems wrong to deprive the general public of the right to free movement and consumers to the freedom of choice. Price is not the only criterion, perhaps consumers would pay more for better quality. French consumers will be shocked to know that many British expats find their meat to be inferior. Notices that said "Scotch beef" or "Welsh lamb" might have Anglo-Saxons flocking to the restaurants.
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