Paris-Sana
PARIS - French farmers led convoys of tractors to Paris on Saturday, blocking roads and blocking traffic to protest French government policies.
"We are the new scapegoats," Jean-Yves Pecour, president of the French National Federation of Farmers' Unions, told Reuters. The ring of the tractors, which raised the flags of the two main agricultural unions, organized the protest.
In central Paris, farmers scattered hay around the Champs-Elysées, lined with shops and running paths to the Place de la Concorde.
The farmers' unions are demanding a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron to present complaints of policies they say are hurting agriculture and threaten livelihoods, such as the phasing out of the widely used herbicide Glyfosite.
A French food law aimed at giving farmers a fairer share of profits has failed to calm their protest over poor income.