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French farmers turn Champs Elysees green
AFP - 2 hours 33 minutes ago
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PARIS (AFP) - – French farmers turned the Champs Elysees into a vast farm covered with plants, trees, flowers and livestock on Sunday to draw attention to the crisis hitting the country's agricultural sector.
Dubbed Nature Capital, over a stretch of 1.2 kilometres (0.8 miles) from the Arc de Triomphe halfway to the Place de la Concorde, more than one hundred varieties of grain, fruit and vegetables dotted Paris' most famous avenue.
Cows, pigs, goats and lambs were also out on the Champs, but in small numbers with a view to showcasing some of the famous breeds such as the enormously fat black-bottomed Limousin pigs, prized for their meat quality.
The event drew 800,000 people on its first day Sunday, according to police. Organisers, the Young Farmers association and the French forest industry, hope to draw a total of two million people.
"We are not there to complain about our situation, but rather to show off our work," said William Villeneuve, head of the young farmers' association.
He hopes strollers on the Champs Elysees will think about "what is on their plates and become more active consumers."
French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire praised Nature Capital for showcasing the diversity of French agriculture.
"I hope this becomes the symbol of our conception of agriculture," he said.
French farmers are already a diminishing breed but one of the worst crises in decades, fuelled by falling prices and rocketing production costs, has further hurt the sector.
President Nicolas Sarkozy's government has offered an aid plan for French farmers with some 1.8 billion euros in loans (2.3 billion dollars) and 650 million euros in other support payments.
Last month, hundreds of farmers rode into Paris on their tractors, bringing their worries about the future of farming to the capital of Europe's agricultural powerhouse.
Sarkozy has in past months made several trips to rural France, visiting farms and trying to ease the anger of producers who say they are no longer making ends meet.
About 200 trucks rolled onto the Champs Elysees late Saturday to unload the trees, plants and topsoil and part of the avenue has been closed to traffic.
Nature Capital was designed by Gad Weil, an outdoor events planner who 20 years ago organised a similar happening that turned the Champs Elysees into a giant wheat field.
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