Slim pickings NAVIGATING Colombia’s mountainous countryside was even harder than usual for three weeks in the summer, when thousands of farmers blocked roads to protest about poor conditions in rural areas. The immediate causes of their anger were expensive fertiliser and recent free-trade deals with the United States and Europe. But their protest has drawn attention to deeper problems in Colombia’s countryside, caused by decades of armed conflict and official neglect.In the scramble to quell the protest the government has negotiated with coffee growers, milk producers and potato and rice farmers, giving in to many of their demands in the face of plunging approval-ratings and looming elections next year. On October 7th it imposed temporary tariffs and quotas on imports of potatoes, onions, beans, tomatoes, powdered milk, fresh cheese, milk and whey. And on October 19th, facing the threat of new protests, it began purchasing 3,000 tonnes of potatoes directly from farmers at better-than-market prices.Meeting every week in different cities, farmers and government officials are hoping to formulate a national agricultural policy by the...
via The Economist: The Americas http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21588417-protest-farmers-draws-attention-deeper-crisis-countryside-conflicts-harvest?fsrc=rss|ame
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