Paris Bakers Protest Mass Production

Baguette-wielding bakers took to the streets by the thousands Tuesday to protest the mass production that allows huge supermarkets to sell the bread at low prices.

Members of the Artisan Baking Association assailed the 21-cent price tag of bread made from ready-tobake dough, which is sold at stores that profit by selling in bulk.

A baguette typically costs the equivalent of 84 cents in the hundreds of small bakeries in Paris.

“When a baker dies, it’s a neighborhood that cries,” some of the more than 5,000 protesters shouted. They marched from a square in southern Paris to the Champ-de-Mars near the Eiffel Tower.

They demanded the government help consumers distinguish between homemade loaves and the massproduced variety.