Remote Breton island seeks organic dairy farmer
The Breton island l’Île d'Ouessant (Ushant), which has 800 inhabitants, is seeking a dairy farmer to produce organic milk on the island.
The job advert was posted on the island’s mayoral website, and has been dubbed an “agricultural project”. Applications for the position close on May 21, 2019.
The successful applicant will work with inhabitants on the island to help them produce organic dairy products.
The role will also involve helping to protect the island’s farmland and natural spaces that might otherwise be threatened by wasteland, which is “leading to the closure of farmland and the diminishing of biodiversity”, the advert said.
The farmer will have a 35-hectare area to work in initially, at a cost of €40 per hectare, as well as existing buildings.
The island has also been setting up a new organic vegetable patch, the produce of which will be sold alongside the new organic dairy products.
Ushant, part of Finistère, is the largest and most isolated of the Breton islands.
Until the 20th century, there were 750 hectares of farmland and 800 hectares of grazing lands, but these were left to pasture after inhabitants turned to a different way of life, or left the island completely.
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Most of the island’s income now comes from tourism.
