After an eventful start to our voyage in Calais we headed off across the countryside towards Saint Omer.
One of our cycling companions, Martin lives and work the land at a small holding close to our planned route so we detour to visit his wonderful abode.
Flying the flag ‘Paysans enquete de terre!’ (Peasants in search of land!) he explained how he came to live there. The typical French farmstead had been a stop on a ‘cyclotour’ he made with a group of young people who want to get on the land. The challenges they face are high land prices (particularly due to speculation), the lack of availability of small pockets of land in the area, diffficulty getting planning to live on their farms and the need for specific agricultural training (required in France in order to access social services).
Martin now lives there and grows vegetables for his keep, but is still on the hunt for his own pocket of land and is passionate about changing the situation for other young people across Europe!
He is joining us to Brussels to make his message loud and clear! There are thousands of young people and potential new entrants to farming all across Europe. The CAP must support them to make this important step to help create a future of good food and farming!
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