French Family Farms In Crisis

This article, dated November 7th, is written by Amanda Hodge for the newspaper The Australian.

Just like America's shrinking family farm population, France's farmers are in similar tough straits. Just like America, her farms are dissapearing at the rate of one every 15 minutes, according to the French organic lobby called Ecovert.

The French government has been providing financial subsidies to her farmers for years. However, the structure for these subsidies was so warped, it rewarded the big agribusinesses for over-production. So many throughout France the the EU want to lower the trade barrier to allow for foreign-grown goods to enter the French market.

Yet, in doing so, this would reduce French self-sufficiency in feeding her population, much like in America. The globalist elites who scheme for a World State run by them see no problem in this. But the average French family farmer is the one most harmed by these policies.

In a Distributist France, if there are subsidies to be paid to farmers, it should always be to the small farmers and farmer co-ops, not to the big farms and agri-businesses. And though foreign agricultural trade is a given, it should be to the benefit of the small farmers and the local market, meeting local needs first. This will help to reduce the threat of over-production and glutting the market.

France walks a tightrope here. With all the other ills she faces - many of them self-inflicted, especially in the light of the nation-wide Muslim riots and her hard-hearted secularism - she does not need another trial like this. Let France reshape her agricultural subsidy policy to favor the small farmer and co-ops, not her globalist elites and agri-business and "free trade" lobbies.