Video does not show French farmers protesting government climate policy

By: Nikolaj Kristensen
March 8 2024

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(Source: X/TikTok/Screenshots)

Context

A video of people in overalls unloading piles of manure from wheelbarrows on the floor of what appears to be a convention center is being shared online, with users incorrectly claiming it shows French farmers protesting government climate legislation. 

"Meanwhile in France the Farmers have out their Tractors & are wheeling manure dripping hay into a Government Facility as they continue to protest insane Climate related Legislation," said a post on Facebook that included the video.

2024 has seen farmers protest over rising costs, falling prices, and climate-related regulation, among other things, in several European countries, including France.

However, the French farmers in the video are not protesting the French government's climate policy or dropping manure in a government facility. The protest took place at an expo in front of the stand of a dairy company that has recently been battling French farmers over milk prices. 

In fact

The footage was originally uploaded to X (formerly Twitter) on February 24, 2024, by independent French journalist Ulysse Thevenon. In the post, Thevenon explains that cow breeders were venting their anger against Lactalis, a large French dairy product corporation, for disregarding their production costs. 

The post was tagged "#SalonAgriculture2024." Salon de l'Agriculture is an expo for agriculture and related businesses. The 2024 expo took place from February 24 to March 3 at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris. 

Logically Facts contacted Thevenon to ask if the video showed French farmers protesting climate legislation at a government facility, as claimed on social media.

"No, it does not," said Thevenon, who confirmed he was the one who had filmed the incident. "They were breeders who had a stand to present their cows at the Salon de l'Agriculture in Paris. They dumped hay and manure on the stand of Lactalis, the world's leading French dairy company, to protest against the low prices offered by the multinational to farmers."

Thevenon explained that Lactalis and the farmers have been negotiating the issue for months, with the company offering a price below the farmer's cost price. 

"This has led to numerous actions, including the occupation of the company's head office. At the Salon de l'Agriculture, this action was taken to demonstrate the breeders' support for this struggle," Thevenon said. 

On January 24, French dairy farmers blocked entrances to Lactalis factories to protest the prices they were offered for their milk. "Since September, the price of milk has only been going down, and alongside that, everything is increasing. We are fed up. We want a good price for milk so that we can move forward, evolve, and be calm," one dairy farmer told French TF1 INFO. 

The verdict

The video does not show farmers protesting government climate legislation. It shows dairy farmers protesting against the Lactalis dairy products company over milk prices. Therefore, we have marked this claim as misleading.