Life on the Farm Draws Some French

Old Jan 18th, 2017, 09:12 AM
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Life on the Farm Draws Some French

An interesting article today in the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/w...cle-click&_r=0.

I don't want to be a farmer but it made me wistful, despite the scary statistic that a farmer commits suicide every other day in France. I think we all long for a slower pace of life. Thoughts?
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Old Jan 18th, 2017, 09:41 AM
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Well, we're not farmers, and I sure don't think any of the farmers around here have a slower pace of life (they work incredibly hard all year long and have no breaks from bad weather and such), but yes, living in rural France is mostly very tranquil and I would never go back to city living.
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Old Jan 18th, 2017, 10:05 AM
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Frankly, I do not understand how the subject can even merit an article. Was the "journalist" not born yet when the series 'Green Acres' was playing on American television?

This sort of thing has always happened in the industrialized countries. In France the main fad was in the 1970's when many young adults returned from their 6 months or a year in Kathmandu or Goa and decided that city life no longer appealed to them. The goal was to buy a farm and a herd of goats where they would happily make goat cheese and sell it at the local market. Needless to say, most of them did not last long. There is even an affectionate and/or condescending French term for these people: baba cool.

These days, the urge still strikes a lot of people but they are slightly better equipped. They will still make goat cheese but they will sell it over the internet! Good luck.
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Old Jan 18th, 2017, 02:57 PM
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French agriculture is bigger than in any other Euro country and their farmers are among the most militant.
They want trade protection and promote it by dumping refuse (i.e. manure) in front of the local city hall.
Does that sound bucolic? North American farmers watch the Chicago trade indexes, plant (and fertilizs) the fields though global positioning controlled by computers and later survey the crops with a drone. We eat cheaper and better, though not in gourmet terms.
Artisanals play on daydreams of the past (so did the hippies.) In the real old days, hard physical labour and no price supports meant a farmer died of old age at 60, and broke. Bring on the luxury goods (artisanal cheese, yum). Just be prepared to pay a lot more for it and in return get better flavour but very limited nutritional advantages.
I wonder if Kerouac has done one of his marvellous reports on the Salon international de l'agriculture, the Paris farm show which sounds as if its displays of the spare-no-cost glories of French produce would turn mouth-watering into a veritable torrent. It's next month: https://en.salon-agriculture.com/
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Old Jan 18th, 2017, 03:00 PM
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Sorry for the spelling mistake (and the lack of an editing function): I meant "fertilize".
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Old Jan 18th, 2017, 08:23 PM
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Indeed I have reported on it.
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Old Jan 18th, 2017, 10:27 PM
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Maybe we should reopen some old coal mines if people are so nostalgic.
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Old Jan 18th, 2017, 11:02 PM
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"North American farmers watch the Chicago trade indexes, plant (and fertilizs) the fields though global positioning controlled by computers and later survey the crops with a drone."

No-one I've ever met selling his or her organic produce at a Seattle farmers' market has the land, time or financial resource to do anything so daft. Just as no French dairy farm baron operates much differently from those Iowa corn planters - though he's typically less dependent on tax handouts or legislative protectionism.

All Western agriculture is a mix between artisan enterprise and industrialised mass production. Careful quality-oriented, volume agriculture isn't unique to Europe or even to North American ex-hippies. Think top-end US vineyards or beef growers.
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