Status Updates From Silence dans les champs

Un thriller sur l agriculture bretonne où tout est vrai. La ci-devant étant prise comme un concentré (phytosanitaire) du modèle d'agriculture industrielle développée après guerre. Que s'est il passé depuis l apogée de la surproduction dans les années 1980, où on se disait que c'était le bout d une impasse ? Hé bien tout le livre explique comment les choses se sont poursuivies en pire pendant les 40 années suivantes

Finished: review next week....too tired today!

Part 2: Incredible interviews with people fearful of speaking out b/c they want to improve the agriculture methods and promote an environmental safe farming/breeding. "écolos" ( greens ).
Farmers who "buck the system" are targeted by  quasi maffioso actons.
Euphemism....no, not maffioso but "this is the social order in Brittany".

Imagine: A robotic milking system (AMS) can cost
between $150,000 to $200,000 per robot.
Some sources estimate a range of $200,000 to $225,000 per robot.
That's a lot of money for a dairy farmer!
The weight of these investments is crushing.
The farmer sees...double production
...but not double revenus!

Narrative  "Silence dan les champs" is slow going.
Structure: many, many interviews with different people in "agribusiness"
I miss the flow of a ....storyline.
It I just his and miss pages filled with complaints about
...the "agri - maffia' !
Words are shocking in the interviews:
" It's serfdom or suicide." -- "It is modern enslavemet."
 -- "There is an omerta for agir".  (food processing industry)

Stark statistics: agriculture (farming) is the most exposed sector to suicide. Of all the professions...Britanny France has the highest rate of suicide in the country. So many in farming are overworked, deep in debt, (for farm machinery), underpaid (connected to politics and free-trade) and "désabusée" disillusioned.

Good hook: Author makes the book very personal by describing the difficult farming life of his parents Brittany France. I'm sure we'll hear more about many of the "riverains" farming "locals" and how they have been harassed by the "Agri" world.
Book is winner of Le Prix du livre Albert Londres 2023 (best investigative writing).