Emmanuel Macron during a debate on pensions in Rodez (Aveyron) on October 3, 2019. -

ERIC CABANIS / POOL / AFP

The "great national debate on agriculture", suspended since confinement, will resume this weekend in Paris, with 134 French people drawn, expected to talk about Common Agricultural Policy.

The participants were chosen according to their region, their age group and their social level by a specialist service provider responsible for representing "the diversity and significance" of the French population.

Conclusions made on Sunday evening

After being greeted Friday evening by three ministers and several specialists, the 134 lucky ones elected will begin to debate Saturday, until Sunday.

Their travel and accommodation is taken care of by the organizing National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP).

Six of the 140 people initially planned have withdrawn due to the epidemic, said the CNDP.

The assembly has 55 women and 79 men.

Two farmers will participate alongside 36 "executives and intellectual professions", 29 employees, 21 "intermediate professions", 19 artisans traders, 16 students, nine workers, two people without a label and none inactive.

They will return the conclusions of their discussions on Sunday evening.

During the first phase of this great debate, started on February 23 and suspended on April 3, more than 9,500 contributions were recorded on the participatory platform.

According to the Internet users who participated, the three priority objectives of the future CAP should be: sustainably manage natural resources, protect biodiversity, landscapes and ecosystems, and fight against climate change and adapt to it.

Region-by-region debates

None of the ten choices proposed related to the initial ambition of the European agricultural policy which entered into force in 1962, namely to produce sufficient quantities of healthy food at an affordable price to feed the entire population.

But a debate on the theme of “food sovereignty” was nevertheless added to the program.

It will take place on October 20 in Angoulême.

Two of the 11 regional debates have already taken place: on September 11, in Châlons-en-Champagne, on “agricultural models” and on September 18 in Saint-Lô on “natural resources and agriculture”.

The other nine will take place by the end of October, at the rate of one per region, instead of the two initially planned, the program having been lightened by the health crisis.

The next one, in Forcalquier (PACA) on September 30, will look at the question "how to cohabit in the countryside".

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