French farmers descend on Paris

France is no stranger to disruptive, showy protests and Thursday's massive farmer demonstration was no exception.

Thousands of angry agriculturists rode into central Paris on tractors emblazoned with slogans like, "Our charges are killing us" - a reference to financial pressures they say are compounded by high labor costs and shrinking returns for milk and meat.

They traveled at an average speed of 22 mph, or 35 kph, bringing traffic to a crawl in some places, although many commuters heeded authorities' advice to leave their cars at home and take public transportation.

"There are not many traffic jams caused by the protesters. It's limited," a spokesman for Paris' traffic information center told Agence France-Presse.

Four hours by car, or 13 by tractor

The congestion, however minimal, marked the culmination of a week-long journey for some farmers, who trekked to Paris from all reaches of the country. French media reported that the first farmers to begin trickling into the city came from Brittany, some 282.7 miles away - a 13-hour drive by tractor.

Police said they counted more than 1,300 protesters driving their farm equipment into town, while the demonstration's organizers spoke of more than 1,700.

It was the year's latest high-profile stunt aimed to raise awareness of the plight of French farmers, who say unfair competition from abroad is undercutting their margins and endangering their livelihoods.

The farmers bemoan on the one hand falling prices for their products, and on the other French regulations that stipulate higher pay for field workers, which the protestors say makes them less competitive on a European scale.

Creative acts of defiance

Earlier this summer, French farmers set up roadblocks on the border to Germany, denying passage to trucks carrying food from France's eastern neighbor. In other acts of defiance, farmers also dumped manure in cities and prevented tourists from reaching the popular Mont St.-Michel island in Normandy.

On Thursday, some farmers had spray-pained the buckets of their tractors with the words, "Help us, we're dying." One particularly morbid display of discontent saw a farmer hang a dummy from his tractor to represent farmers who had committed suicide as France's agricultural situation worsens.

The farmers have demanded action from politicians, saying theirs is not only a French problem but a European one too as farmers across the Continent struggle to remain competitive globally.

On Thursday, a delegation from France's largest farming union, the FNSEA, was scheduled to attend a meeting in the French parliament and speak with French Prime Minister Manuel Valls.

A pan-European protest is set to take place in Brussels next Monday as EU agriculture ministers convene.

cjc/hg (AP, dpa, AFP)