PARIS – Angry French farmers have blocked the famed Mont Saint-Michel causeway and highways leading to the Alps to denounce low milk and meat prices.
The farmers used tires, tractors and tree trunks to block roads. Mont Saint-Michel, in the northwestern Normandy region, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Thursday’s protests were prompted by deception over the government offer to back loans to the farmers and delay tax payments as part of a 600 million-euro (CAD $865 million) plan.
Farmers say their margins are being chipped away by cheap imports and pressure from grocery chains.
The main farmers’ union, the FNSEA, warned that other protests “will probably happen in the next two to three days.”
Low prices have led about 10 per cent of livestock farms on the verge of bankruptcy, the government said.
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