Sardinian shepherds pour milk on roads to protest low prices

Sardinians dairy farmers protest low milk prices in downtown Rome, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019. (Giuseppe Lami/ANSA via AP)

ROME – Shepherds have been pouring milk on highways and town streets on the Italian island of Sardinia to protest prices paid by cheesemakers for their milk.

On a fifth straight day of protests, the shepherds were joined on Tuesday by students in a march in Nuoro, Sardinia, where shopkeepers shut stores in solidarity. The shepherds poured milk from large canisters onto streets.

To promote their cause, Sardinian shepherds gave away chunks of salty, hard, pecorino cheese in a square near Parliament in the Italian capital.

The shepherds contend big cheese-makers have banded together to pay low prices for sheep and goat milk.

In Rome, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini met with a delegation of shepherds and promised them a "solution" this week. Premier Giuseppe Conte has met previously with dairy farmers.

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