People watch slurry, manure and tyres dumped by farmers on the entrance of the native state administration constructing, in Agen, southwestern France, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024. French farmers have vowed to proceed protesting and are sustaining visitors barricades on among the nation’s main roads.

Fred Scheiber/AP

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Fred Scheiber/AP

People watch slurry, manure and tyres dumped by farmers on the entrance of the native state administration constructing, in Agen, southwestern France, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024. French farmers have vowed to proceed protesting and are sustaining visitors barricades on among the nation’s main roads.

Fred Scheiber/AP

PARIS — Two local weather activists hurled soup Sunday on the glass defending the Mona Lisa on the Louvre Museum in Paris and shouted slogans advocating for a sustainable meals system. This got here amid protests by French farmers in opposition to a number of points, together with low wages.

In a video posted on social media, two ladies with the phrases “FOOD RIPOSTE” written on their t-shirts might be seen passing beneath a safety barrier to get nearer to the portray and throwing soup on the glass defending Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece.

“What’s the most important thing?” they shouted. “Art, or right to a healthy and sustainable food?”

“Our farming system is sick. Our farmers are dying at work,” they added.

The Louvre staff might then be seen placing black panels in entrance of the Mona Lisa and asking guests to evacuate the room.

Paris police stated two folks have been arrested following the incident.

On its web site, the “Food Riposte” group stated the French authorities is breaking its local weather commitments and referred to as for the equal of the nation’s state-sponsored well being care system to be put in place to offer folks higher entry to wholesome meals whereas offering farmers an honest revenue.

Angry French farmers have been utilizing their tractors for days to arrange highway blockades and gradual visitors throughout France to hunt higher remuneration for his or her produce, much less pink tape and safety in opposition to low-cost imports. They additionally dumped pungent agricultural waste on the gates of presidency workplaces.

On Friday, the federal government introduced a sequence of measures that farmers stated don’t totally handle their calls for. Those embrace “drastically simplifying” sure technical procedures and the progressive finish to diesel gas taxes for farm autos.

Some farmers threatened to converge on Paris, beginning Monday, to dam the primary roads resulting in the capital.

New Prime Minister Gabriel Attal visited a farm on Sunday within the central area of Indre-et-Loire. He acknowledged farmers are in a tough place as a result of “on the one side we say ‘we need quality’ and on the other side ‘we want ever-lower prices’.”

“What’s at stake is finding solutions in the short, middle and long term,” he stated, ” because we need our farmers.”

Attal additionally stated his authorities is contemplating “additional” measures in opposition to what he referred to as “unfair competition” from different international locations which have completely different manufacturing guidelines and are importing meals to France.

He promised “other decisions” to be made within the coming weeks to handle farmers’ issues.