EUROPE'S dairy farmers have been bombarding the offices of Europe's agriculture ministers and Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan with letters of protest following the suicide of another French farmer last December.

"We farmers are running out of steam," said the president of the French milk producers' association, Boris Goudouin, who said that the growing financial pressure coupled with a lack of prospects was pushing farmers to kill themselves.

"We work round the clock but are still unable to live off our work! Debt is a system that forces us to keep producing more and more but at the end of the day, we are left with nothing," said Mr Goudouin.

According to the agricultural social insurer MSA France, the suicide rate among French farmers is especially high, with dairy farming and cattle breeding the most affected sectors.

The French Milk producers' association has pledged to not let the demise of its colleagues go unnoticed and started its campaign to send letters to French Minister of Agriculture Stéphane Le Foll in late January, demanding specific measures to help French milk producers.

As a sign of solidarity, milk producers from other European countries are now sending letters to their national farm ministers as well, asking that those responsible in the agricultural sector address the causes of the milk crisis – unbridled liberalisation and overproduction – and bring long-term stability to the dairy market.

"We need a European regulatory system for the dairy market to pull European dairy production out of the crisis and keep it out," said Mr Gondouin, who pointed out that that the EU programme of voluntary production cuts had led to a price recovery.

"The EMB's Market Responsibility Programme takes this approach to the logical next step and must finally be legally established!" he said.