a few hours before closing, farmers describe “a special but hopeful show”

The sixtieth edition of the Agricultural Show closes its doors to the public on Sunday. Farmers draw an initial assessment of this very special edition, where moments of exchange with visitors finally took precedence over the political tensions of the first days.

Next to Girly, his champion cow of the Vosges breed, Lionel Vaxelaire is smiling. On the eve of the closing of a very special Agricultural Show, right during the mobilization of farmers, this breeder is relieved : the aisles of the Porte de Versailles exhibition center are full. “The general public is therehe emphasizes. We need to communicate with the general public about our profession, our know-how, our passion.”

After hearing the plight of farmers at the blockage points, visitors came with many questions. “They were finding out more about what we were really doingobserves Lionel Vaxelaire. There are two agricultural worlds : large cereal growers or very large cattle farms and then there are small mountain farms like us. There is really a difference and they asked us how we manage to get by today. The general public doesn’t realize all this.”

Valentin, a dairy cow breeder in Orne, also felt the need to explain his daily life and his job even more this year. “Some visitors seek to understand our distresshe says. I explained my point of view and the problems we have at home, with charges which have increased significantly and the price which has not kept pace.”

“We hope that we have won the hearts of the French”

Thierry, breeder of Gascony cows from the Pyrenees, will not forget the first day of opening, very tense with the visit of Emmanuel Macron. The breeder was “at the heart of the fray” pitting farmers against the police, in the middle of “tear gas”. “It’s been very complicated, it’s a bit of a shame but we have to understand our anger. We’re going through a very difficult period”he explains.

It was “a special show, weird, ruined the first day but a show full of hope”he remembers. “We hope that we will be heard and that we have won the hearts of the French so that they eat more quality meat as we know how to do with Gascony from the Pyrenees and forget a little about these meats imported from other countries , who do not have at all the same standards as us, which is unfair competition.” The Salon will close its doors to the public on Sunday at 7 p.m. hours.