When I first arrived in France (1972), every local farm had a small milking herd, a few pigs, enough vines to make about 2000 litres of wine, ducks for foie gras and confit, chicken for eggs and roasts, and enough arable land to produce all they and their animals required.
Now all has changed. My neighbours no longer have farmyard poultry and no longer have pigs, the vines have all long-gone as have many of the milking herds. The fields are sown with maize, sunflowers, and triticale, but the old fashioned wheat (which was exchanged with the baker for bread) has all but disappeared.
In the shops, markets, and supermarkets, the out-of-season 'French' beans come from Kenya, the baby sweet corn from Israel, and the Butternuts from South Africa; all could easily be grown here in France.
So what is happening? Fashion has taken over from common sense. Our farmers now spend more time filling in their subsidy forms than they do ploughing. Brussels tells them what to grow, and pays them to do so. The whole idea of 'FARMING' in Europe has become a farce.
It's interesting to note that the only people who now keep chickens in my immediate area are we non-farmers. We grow our own fruit and veg', keep a few hens, and even bake our own bread. If we relied on European farmers to feed us; I don't think we'd last too long.
Of course everyone knows all this already, but the stupidity sadly continues!
I see that Mr Blogger has been playing silly buggers again. I'm finding the new backroom layouts really confusing.... why can't they just leave things alone!
ReplyDeleteAmen!!!
Deleteyeah, i hate it now...it worked so well before, why change it? Argh!
DeleteIt took me a while to get my head round the new set-up - I knew where I was with the old one - anyway, regarding your post - I always thought the French had the right idea about small-farming and am saddened that they too have gone the same way as us Brits. It is up to us - seems like it is now every man for himself.
ReplyDeleteSame over here Cro,our farmers are ploughing their oranges into the ground while USA ones are for sale in the shops...same as many fruits...it is so frustrating,the farms are going and coal mines everywhere..when there is not enough good soils left to grow food we will see the government in a quandary..Looks like it is world wide..
ReplyDeleteperhaps it is you and your friends who are becoming the real farmers, the others are just industrial scale producers.
ReplyDeleteOne feels that there is a point coming where moving so much food around the world will have to be questioned.
There are more costs than finance. Yes, some things can't be produced everywhere they are needed, but if you can't basically feed yourself there must be something wrong
The other problem is that many local farmers are of retirement age, with no sons or daughters to take over (my friend Laurence is a rare example of a daughter taking over from her father). Who will buy these farms, and who will take over their running? Maybe the Chinese will arrive in droves, and make a huge success of them!
DeleteIt is so unhealthy (unhealthy in the sense of world systems). The sound-bites are all about buying local produce and being eco-economical, and yet everything is industrialised and shipped trillions of miles around the globe by air and sea, utterly dependent on the gloopy puddles of four-star dino-vegetation.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the political dream, such as it is, is of a global "service" economy (probably for ease of taxation and to ease the neurosis of control) - but it's a bit difficult to eat an insurance policy or customer care centre call.
As usual perhaps, maybe, the real people are moving of necessity into the gaps left by our lords and masters - lots of tiny little "proper" farms and farmsteads sprouting up between the Subsidy Office Call Centre buildings.
Steps down off soap-box and flounces stage left, munching a (local) carrot ...
Our elderly farmer neighbour still has a few cows, hens and ducks, and carefully tends his vineyards. He has four sons and one daughter but sadly none of them are interested in taking on the farm. Seems such a shame. (Going to try your soda bread recipe today!)
ReplyDeleteThere must be a few of the old style farmers still around... but just wait a while. Good luck with the bread!!
DeleteIsn't it funny how some posts just hit the spot.
ReplyDeleteTom and I were only talking this morning about 'the old days' and saying how much simpler everything was, but no less enjoyable.
I have to turn off with all the madness or I would commit hary cary. lol
Briony
xx
Never mind - when the apocalyptic era of doom overtakes the modern era, you, like a few others, will be equipped to cope with such a disaster - just keep the 12 gauge loaded and always handy to fend off marauders.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enuff, I read today that it was the Duke of Wellington that first equipped composite units formed from his dragoons with a red sash, worn diagonally from the right shoulder, as "Military Police" to control his own multi-national force looters and marauders post-Waterloo. Offenders were detained, stripped to the waist (including officers) and given 12 lashes with "The Cat".
Smal farms are disappearing here also in favor of development. Twenty years ago, the area around me was 40 percent agriculture, now most of those farms have been sold off and housing developments have gone up. There are still some holdouts and I am lucky enough to live around them, although I know it is only a matter of time that they too take the money and run.
ReplyDeleteIt is all about corporate farming now.
The Food Industry strikes again and again Cro. Everything about the business and nothing about the Food.
ReplyDeleteMakes my heart sick.
In America, they pay the farmers NOT to grow stuff. Makes no sense to me. I live in an area where there are lots of individual gardens, like you.
ReplyDeleteWe have a cousin who grew grapes near Bordeaux. One year he too was paid by Brussels NOT to pick; so he sold them to his neighbour instead, and made twice the money. Later he was paid to pull them all up, he didn't replant.
DeleteJa, die Welt hat sich sehr schnell gedreht und mit ihr die Menschen, können wir dankbar sein, das wir einen zurück liegenden Teil dieser Jahre erleben durften,
ReplyDeletemit einem Garten, einfache Geräte zum Arbeiten, aber auch einer bescheidenen Lebensweise,
hier in Deutschland ist es genau so, wie geschrieben, alles wird tausende km durch die Gegend gefahren und dabei ist das Obst und Gemüse nur für das schnelle Essen...
aber Dank der industriellen Findigkeit gibt es „ chemisches Konservierungsmittel“ dann hält alles 100 Jahre und noch länger!
Grüße Jasmin
Danke Jasmin. Leider habe ich kein Deutch.
DeleteSie haben ja so recht, Jasmin - und der die Waren zur Fastfood-Restaurants liefern werden mit Konservierungsstoffen und die Brötchen die sie verwenden haben Zuckerzusatz zu "Haken" Menschen in 'genießen' essen sie geladen.
DeleteHier, in Australien, wir haben so viele Unternehmen, die pastoralen wird in kleine Lose weit, wenn die Besitzer zu alt für sie und ihre (Stadt) Kinder wollten nicht, um die Familie Bauernhof zu führen, dass die Regierung nachgegeben Bauernhof kam unterteilt und wird nun ermöglicht foriegn Eigentum an großen pastoralen Beteiligungen.
Yes, the world has turned very quickly and with it the people, we can be thankful that we have experienced a previous part of this years
ReplyDeletewith a garden, simple devices to work, but even a modest lifestyle,
Here in Germany it is exactly as written, everything is thousands of km driven through the area and it is only the fruit and vegetables for fast food ...
But thanks to the industrial ingenuity, there are "chemical preservative" then everything is 100 years and lasts even longer!
regards Jasmin
I have translated with the technology!
Thanks again Jasmin.... I would have done that myself; if I knew how!
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DeleteWow, I'm impressed with your multi-lingual talents, Cro. Anyhow, as already stated, farmers in the U.S. are subsidized by the government and paid not to grow crops, all in the name of market and price manipulation, and what's sad is that most of the subsidies end up in the pockets of those who need it the least: the monstrous-sized corporate farms. The little farmers, the ones who really care about farming and the quality of their crops, are the ones who suffer, and end up losing the farm. Literally.
ReplyDeleteIt seems this madness has occurred the world over. My last location was mostly agricultural when i first arrived, but as others have said, the kids didn't want to take over the farming, the developers offered so much money for the land the farmers couldn't afford not to take it, and now there are housing developements, which yield nothing except greater infrastructure requirements.
ReplyDeleteIn my current location, i'm doing all i can to support local farmers. If the slugs are as manicial in my garden as last year, then i shall be supporting the local farmers even more.
In our little corner of the Lot there are still many small farms, one of them our immediate neighbour. He and his wife are now in the 70's and we have watched over the last 10 years as the cow herd of 13 lessened with each passing year. Last year they were all gone. He still cuts hay, but hires an outsider to do this. They still have two goats -- for cheese -- and chickens. We have so admired their hard work over the years -- rising at 5 a.m. and bringing in the cows for milking every evening. They had 3 large vegetable gardens, now there in one in the distance and another half the size it used to be just over our fence. They have 2 sons and 2 daughters. One son has taken over his father's carpentry trade, but is not really interested in being a farmer. The farm is small but exquisite and the range of crop -- from vegetables to fruit to walnuts. The man is a retired cabinet maker -- he built twin staircases in our house out of oak -- from trees he cut on his property. And his wife was out in the fields with him working even harder. It is sad to see it dissolving before our eyes year by year.
ReplyDeleteThat is sad. At least you still practice the old ways and even blog about it. Perhaps others will see your writings and be encouraged. The nice thing about gardening and homemaking is that you generally do want to eat healthier, and live with less waste.
ReplyDeleteInteresting and sad. And sadly this is so true of the US as well.
ReplyDelete