Radical farmers take to the hills

David Perrier is squatting on a countess's land

By Jamie Coomarasamy BBC Paris correspondent

With a whistle and a clap of encouragement David Perrier guides his flock of sheep from their pen to the rolling Larzac hills where they graze.

But this young farmer is also a fighter in a modern version of an age-old battle between those who own the land and those who farm it.

Since April, he's been a squatting shepherd, occupying a run-down farm that belongs to a rich countess who wants to sell it to a businessman.

Jose Bove was released from prison on Thursday

He says farmers are being pushed off the land and have no choice but to take direct action.

"I've spent five years looking for a farm in this region," he says, "and there's no way I'd have found one by any other means."

"People who own land here simply don't want young farmers coming and working on it. They just want to sell it to people who'll make the biggest profits," he added.

He has been joined by Pierre Igourin, a pig farmer who has travelled from Brittany on the other side of France to offer his support.

Direct action

Pierre is a member of the Peasant's Confederation, the radical farmers' union, led by Jose Bove, which is backing David's cause.

He believes that at a time when small farmers are under threat controversy is justified.

He says: "We are at the limit of the law and sometimes you need strong action.

"The political structures don't do anything, so we have to be more implicated, more determined".

But try telling that to Countess Gladys De MontCalm, the owner of the farm, who is trying to get David evicted.

At her family chateau, near Angouleme, she says that she was shocked by the revolutionary methods that he - and his supporters - had used.

Countess De MontCalm: Fighting for eviction

"It's illegal," she says.

"In France - up to now - you can't come to a property and say it's mine. Even in Russia it doesn't exist any more."

When I point out that it has happened to her, she says: "Yes, but I hope that justice will put that in order."

But will it?

Radical reputation

The Larzac is a region known for the radical action of its farmers and the local mayor seems to be on David Perrier's side.

Probe a bit further and it seems that Countess Gladys isn't too optimistic.

"I thought that you just had to sit in the middle of my house and say it's my house... but it won't get him out."

Of course, this tale of the shepherd and the countess is a local one, but it does have implications beyond France's borders.

Europe is currently trying to reform its entire agricultural system and one of the main questions it has to answer is what will be the role of the small farmer in the modern, industrialised world.