It must suck to be french

[fintstone]

I really hope they ask for help from the US....again.

United Press International

France faces drought, locusts
Jul. 17, 2005 at 9:41PM

On top of a severe drought, France is fighting a plague of hundreds of thousands of locusts.
The locusts are devouring everything from crops to window-box flowers, reported the Observer.
"At the beginning they seem small, insignificant insects but they grow very quickly," said Aveyron region farmer Gerard Laussel. "They eat everything that is green, leaving only stalks, and when they have finished they leave some kind of scent so the cattle do not want to graze on what is left."
The French environment ministry said drought could be felt across most of France, but it mostly impacted from the Atlantic Ocean to Paris.
"There is nothing we can do for the 700 or 800 farmers affected," said Patrice Lemoux, an agriculture official. "The locust has no known predator and the only insecticides which might make a difference are banned."

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally posted by fintstone
the only insecticides which might make a difference are banned."

This is the part that caught my attention. Even French farmers don't deserve this. So no exceptions to the ban; farmers can lose their livelyhood, possibly even their farms, and they cannot use proven insecticides even in a dire emergency. Radical whacko environmentalism strikes again. There is no balance in this realm anymore. I would bet those that pushed those bans through live in very large population centers, so far removed from the land that they really do not even know where their food comes from. They will be the first to whine and gripe when the cost of a loaf of bread goes up because of this, but they will be wholey incapable of making the connection. Kind of like here...

[Purrybonker]

Originally posted by Jeff Higgins
...They will be the first to whine and gripe when the cost of a loaf of bread goes up because of this, but they will be wholey incapable of making the connection. Kind of like here...

Nope - farming in europe is sooooo heavily subsidized that any semblance between input costs/production variables are completely pounded out of the supply/demand curve.

French agricultural capacity decimated? Won't hardly be noticeable at the grocery check-out once a few pesky logisitic issues are hammered out.

Not hugely different on this side of the pond, but there are plenty of similar pockets of pretend-free-enterprise in the food chain here. Sugar is a great example.

Oh and Fint, the morning line has it a 100-to-1 shot that the majority of French citizenry are keen on tossing their passports for American (or any other) paperwork.

[jyl]

A pretty mean-spirited post.

There is plenty of misfortune in the US, or any country, that others could smirk at. Next time a hurricane hits FL, wildfires hit CA, etc, I suppose you'll welcome a similar sneering post from abroad?

Or are you making some obscure point about French pesticide regulations? (Yawn.)

[Overpaid Slacker]

fint -
I'm with you on the anti-French government part of things, but this could seriously damage the average Joe in France and elsewhere.

I think there is a valid point about over-regulation in the EU, and while I don't think it's a yawner, I can't celebrate a disaster like this. And insects don't recognize national boundaries, so neighboring countries' agriculture could be endangered as well.

All that said, I'm keeping my "Pave France" bumpersticker.

JP

[Moneyguy1]

Slack:

I agree. Too much wedding of an unliked government with the people.

I disagreed with Bill Orielly with his boycott on France.

And how much do we import from China?

Where is the consistency in logic?

[djmcmath]

If France has a "problem," it's definitely the leadership, and not the people. I've met real French people, and they're quite nice. They're polite, and friendly, and still thankful to Americans to be not living under German occupation. Or perhaps it's the people in the Big Cities, the major population base. All of the people that I met were in little villages; we avoided big cities like the plague.

Either way, this kind of thing is never good for anyone. The farmers are most likely to suffer, and the people in the Big Cities will never know the difference.

[techweenie]

Originally posted by djmcmath
If France has a "problem," it's definitely the leadership, and not the people. I've met real French people, and they're quite nice.

IOW, their problem is exactly the same as ours!

[strother]

Good grief, Fintstone. Why do you take pleasure in the distress of 700-800 French farmers? Really mature.

[kach22i]

I wonder if somewhere in France there was a Frenchman named LeFlintstone going on about the Americans and how they deserve Cicada's.

Cicadas!!!

[arcsine]

Originally posted by Jeff Higgins
Radical whacko environmentalism strikes again.

Yeah, who really cares if the pesticide is highly toxic or maybe even carcinogenic. Lets release a bunch of it to help those farmers out. If nothing else, our philosophy now is that short term gain should be made at any long term cost. Maybe it will not seep into the water table and cause birth defects downstream (not your baby, what do you care); maybe it will just sit in the soil and the cattle that feed in the pasture will ingest it it will become part of the milk supply (no one really drinks milk anyhow).

This statement is the most ludicrous one I have seen made here in quite a long time.

[bryanthompson]

I hear they are high in protein.

[techweenie]

Originally posted by arcsine
Yeah, who really cares if the pesticide is highly toxic or maybe even carcinogenic. Lets release a bunch of it to help those farmers out. If nothing else, our philosophy now is that short term gain should be made at any long term cost. Maybe it will not seep into the water table and cause birth defects downstream (not your baby, what do you care); maybe it will just sit in the soil and the cattle that feed in the pasture will ingest it it will become part of the milk supply (no one really drinks milk anyhow).

This statement is the most ludicrous one I have seen made here in quite a long time.

Interessting book out now that's worth reading. It's called "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed."

It explains how civilizations like those in the Mesopotamian valley rose to lead the world and after 6,000 years turned into the third world. Ever wonder why they called it 'the fertile crescent' when today it's just sand and rock? It used to be lush forest. Failure to manage resources turned it into desert.

Interesting theory.

[stevepaa]

Another faliure to manage or imperialism/capitalism at work?

England denuded Ireland of all its forests.

[jyl]

I'm surprised the locals don't have a recipie for locusts. After all, if you eat frogs' legs, snails, chocolate-covered ants . . .

All I can say is, the Chinese probably have a recipie for fried locusts. I'll ask my grandmother.

Originally posted by bryanthompson
I hear they are high in protein.

[fintstone]

Originally posted by strother
Good grief, Fintstone. Why do you take pleasure in the distress of 700-800 French farmers? Really mature.

Good grief strother! What righteous indignation. Now I know how Rove, Bush, etc feel when the liberals misrepresent what they say. Really mature.

[stuartj]

finstone, I really think you shpuldnt comment unless you can strip and reassemble a .50 cal machine gun in under ten seconds.

In the meantime, why dont you consider a visit to France? You might be surprised.

At the very least, you will discover what coffee should taste like.

[fintstone]

Stuart
What makes you think I cannot?....Although probably not in 10 sec...that is nigh impossible.

I have been to France many times. That is where I formed my opinion of the country (of course their actions when we struck Libya and their support of Saddam didn't help)

The coffee sucked.

[stuartj]

Originally posted by fintstone


The coffee sucked.

Oh fint, surely no. I realise we agree on nearly everything, but what could be better than espresso, Le Monde and a pack of Gauloise in a cafe on Rue St Germaine in the world's most beautiful city?

Only a good bourdeaux in the evening, really.

[dd74]

Personally, what I like about Paris is you can take your dog into grocery stores.