How French farmers are adapting since the war in Ukraine halted grain and seed exports. Why we need to buy fewer clothes if we want the fashion industry to be sustainable. And the voice of Ernest Renan – one of the big thinkers of 19th century France, famed for his biography of Jesus.
An impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been a drop in grain exports around the world, as Ukraine was a major producer before the war. Farmers in France - Europe’s largest grain producer – have shifted their production to make up some of the difference. At the annual ‘Salon de l’Agriculture’ agriculture fair in the south of Paris, Laurent Rosso, director of the French vegetable oil and protein trade association, talks about how French grain farmers have increased their sunflower crops, for animal feed and cooking oil, and France is looking for self-sufficiency. And as the cost of wheat has increased, farmers might be discouraged planting other grains. Cédric Truphemus, a producer of petit epautre, or small spelt, in the high Alps, says not enough farmers in the region are planting, and cannot meet the demand. (Listen @1'15)
