The elephant in the room

Credit: Keith Christiansen

I have spent the last week in western France on holiday, eating baguettes and other wonderful products, lots of quality Bretagne butter and cheese. It has been a good week, and it was nice to see the relatives.

Nantes is a city surrounded by farming country and a lot is brought to the local markets – everything from oysters, to meat, cheese and parsley. Plus, I was able to have a ride on the mechanical elephant (see photo, I’m on the top part), for which the area is also famous.

However, unlike the elephant, all is not moving well on the farming side, unfortunately. The European Milk Board newsletter reminds us, “According to a Greenpeace study, the current situation is alarming for those that defend family farming. The number of industrial mega-farms has increased by 56% between 2007 and 2022. In 15 years, Europe has lost two million small-scale commercial farms, and 40% of European economic output now comes from these mega-farms that represent 8% of the sector and receive 37% of agricultural subsidies.”

There has to be a balance between processing for price and locality, and the farmer is often stuck between the prices paid for milk, and the prices of inputs and animal farming. For example, dairy giant Lactalis is proposing, as of January 2025, to reduce its milk collection by 450 million litres in the country, because it has found a loophole that allows it to import milk from Eastern European nations. This milk is then packaged and labelled “Made in France”, giving producers the wrong impression that this is a local product. Is this fair? I don’t think the EU should rob Peter to pay Paul on this one. It is not likely to build any bridges between the 27 countries and I doubt it helps the eastern EU either. As always, there is much to think about, as I enjoy the view from the elephant.

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