Agriculture fair to convince against a backdrop of food and climate challenges - France 24

Paris (AFP)

Faced with a deep identity crisis, farmers will try to convince public opinion of their efforts to reconcile profitable food production and climate sustainability at the 57th International Agricultural Show (SIA), which will open in Paris on Saturday.

"The idea is more than ever to create bridges rather than walls!", Assured the president of the show and farmer Jean-Luc-Poulain in an open letter, calling for "the construction of a new moral contract between the French, the country and their peasants. "

Some 50% of farmers will retire in the next 10 years, and the current food transition will require more arms and legs to the ground. Without reconciliation between farmers and civil society, consumers and citizens alike, who will replace these peasants?

Because the challenge is not only to continue to produce healthy food in France with respect for the planet, but above all that it allows to live a dignified life when it is necessary to convince young people to settle.

"We must take into account that agriculture is really on the move: we must stop harassing and support by purchasing," said the president of the powerful FNSEA agricultural union, Christiane Lambert, after meeting the President of the Republic. last week to prepare for this great annual meeting, during which more than 500,000 visitors are expected at the Parc des Expositions at Porte de Versailles.

- "need for reconciliation" -

She told him of the "necessary need for reconciliation with the population. The transition cannot take place if the consumers do not support us".

Economically, the annual commercial negotiations between supermarkets and their suppliers, scheduled for the end of February, during the show, will be crucial to knowing whether the Food Act of 2018, also called Egalim and supposed to protect producers' incomes by targeting a better distribution of the value between the links in the food chain, will finally be followed by effects.

After the late publication of the orders on the 10% increase in the threshold for resale at a loss (SRP) in mass merchandisers, and a strict framework for promotions, these negotiations will be the first during which the law could have been applied for a whole year.

The results of the first year of application left a bitter taste for farmers as well as for associations of consumers, of defense of the environment, or of animals, who expected a lot, each in their field.

The government has since curtly called distribution to order, accused of keeping trade margins for it and of not paying producers enough.

Three channels, Carrefour, Système U and Intermarché, received on February 10 a total of more than 4 million euros in administrative fines for non-compliance with the rules during the 2019 trade negotiations.

- Towards a food policy? -

The show also takes place when French farmers are awaiting responses from the government on compensation measures for viticulture, affected by Trump taxes in the United States, and on the creation of a protein sector in France.

Another cause for concern is the implementation on January 1 of pesticide non-treatment areas around inhabited areas.

It causes strong dissatisfaction among farmers who want to continue to produce and expressed their opposition in tractors in Paris at the end of 2019, while worrying at the same time about the decline in the French agrifood trade balance with other European countries. In Germany and the Netherlands too, farmers demonstrated against the new environmental constraints.

But the associations are not happy either, the consumption of phytosanitary products in agriculture having jumped by 21% in France in 2018 despite two successive government plans supposed to reduce their use.

In this dialogue of the deaf, the preparation of the next common European agricultural policy (CAP) for 2022-2027, which many fear will drop, will undoubtedly focus attention and concerns, from Thursday in Brussels, at a European summit from the EU budget.

Especially since Brussels would like to launch a "green deal", in particular via an agricultural strategy called "from the fork to the plate" ("farm to fork") which would ultimately broaden agricultural policy to a quasi-political common food, including agriculture, food, health and environment.

© 2020 AFP