When you think about farming difficulties, what country do you think about? Somewhere in Africa? Maybe- possibly South America? Southeast Asia? Somewhere that is dealing with the effects of climate change? You can tell by my tone that this article isn’t about that- what it’s about are the rising food costs in France that have caused one of the more intense protests I’ve heard of in recent years. While thousands are in Copenhagen protesting the destruction that industrialization has caused through greenhouse gas emissions and the resulting complications of climate change, French farmers took to the nation’s capitol and surrounded it with hay to protest crop prices- perhaps a nod toward the manger scene that is so ubiquitous around the Christmas holiday, as the situation could definitely use some saving and guidance.

"When you wake up every day, even if you work 12 to 14 hours, and know you are going to lose money at the end of the day, there is indeed something to be upset about," said Bruno Le Maire, France's agriculture minister.

And that’s the bottom line- you work hard and you expect to at least be able to make a living- I think this is one of those points where Americans can empathize, perhaps even sympathize with the French. You put in an honest day’s work and you expect to come out ahead on something like that, right? On a bad day you come out even, but who puts in 12 hour days to lose money?

The protesting farmers are upset that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has not done enough to aid farmers financially, who are struggling because the prices for food are falling.

And it’s a political battle, to be sure, as the only solutions involve messing with the currency rate, but it’s also the bubbling up of deep personal issues between class and economic status.

According to Al Jazeera, one french farmer expressed the heart of the issue this way- "Do you know why farming is in a bad way? I will tell you. I am here as a witness to the contempt the French President shows to French farmers, who get up early and who work more and earn less every day."

And there you have it. Farmers feel that their president does not respect them. Take that and couple it with a 34% drop in farm revenues over the past 2 years and you get some unhappy people throwing a bunch of hay around the President’s house.

In October, Sarkozy said he would provide $1.5 billion in aid and loans for farmers, but there sounds to be a widespread feeling that that is not enough. Grain, milk and sheep farmers have all held recent protests as well.

When I started writing I thought- well that’s just the tough break of being a farmer, right? But… why shouldn’t we subsidize food, as it is the backbone of being alive, along with water, of course. We need it to be there, whereas we don’t need business. Why shouldn’t business subsidize food?  I’m not into the 12 hour day sob story, but the idea that the people who craft the food we all eat can’t actually put it together financially- well, that is wrong.

Photo Credit: Canam Photos (via Flickr under CCL)