September 25th, 2010
Only twelve months ago at the height of the milk crisis several thousand furious milk producers spilled 3.5 million litres of milk on a field near Mont St. Michel in Western France. One thousand milk producers from France and 50 of their colleagues from Germany and Belgium met in this very place on September 25th, 2010. Children of farmers spilled milk with their mini-tractors and manure spreaders to commemorate this climax of the milk crisis.
Today the young, French organisation APLI (Association des Producteurs de Lait Indépendants) that was founded only fifteen months ago, has taken root, is structured and organised. APLI does its utmost as a member of the European Milk Board (EMB) and in close cooperation with its European partners to support the efforts and negotiations to obtain a fair milk price. The cooperation with its neighbouring and pioneering countries Germany and Belgium is therefore of great importance. This is a short summary of André Lefranc’s speech who addressed his European colleagues.
We would like to thank the members of the BDM who came to the Mont St. Michel and covered great distances of up to 1300km. The interesting discussions during our visits to three dairy farms have shown all too clearly:
All of us face the same problems. We can turn over the figures as much as we like: farmers in Europe cannot keep on going if they earn under 38-42 cents/litre (incl. wages and capital reserve, without social contributions).
One last remark for all those who are responsible for the dairy policy and all producers who think that they can just keep on going or that the ultraliberal system is the solution. The German physicist Albert Einstein put it very well when he said:
“Insanity means doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
Thanks a lot to all participants.
Anton Sidler, APLI
