Macron faces grilling from farmers at agricultural fair

PARIS, Feb 25 (AFP): President Emmanuel Macron has faced heckles and whistles from French farmers angry with reforms to their sector, as he arrived for France's annual agricultural fair.

For over 12 hours, Macron listened and responded to critics' rebukes and questions - only to return home to the Elysee Palace with an adopted hen.

"I saw people 500 metres (yards) away, whistling at me," Macron said, referring to a group of cereal growers protesting against a planned EU free trade pact with a South American bloc, and against the clampdown on weed-killer glyphosate.

"I broke with the plan and with the rules and headed straight to them, and they stopped whistling," he told reporters.

Macron was seeking to appease farmers who believe they have no alternative to the widely-used pesticide - which environmental activists say probably causes cancer.