The freelance journalist, who has carried out several surveys on the agri-food sector in Brittany in recent years, has been the target of pressure and has been the subject of two defamation lawsuits. While a collective calls for support to preserve the freedom to inform about this industry, she describes its mechanisms at the microphone of Philippe Vandel, on Europe 1. 

In 2014, Inès Léraud began to investigate in Brittany, the first agrifood group in the region, Triskalia. "And then, that brought me to the subject of green tides, an investigation that took me three years," she remembers at the microphone of Philippe Vandel. Author of several articles, books and reports, the independent journalist has since been pressured and subjected to two defamation trials, to the point that a platform signed by personalities like Yann-Arthus Bertrand, Yannick Jadot or Florence Aubenas and published in Liberation calls for defending "freedom of information on the agrifood sector". Because according to Inès Léraud, that is what it is all about. 

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"The phenomenon of the factory of silence"

"I was a freelance journalist based in Paris and I was reporting with a few days in the field each time," recalls Inès Léraud. "And when I started to get a foothold in the Breton food industry, I realized that a few days in the field would not be enough: the farmers were afraid to speak. I said to myself: 'there I have to go and live there for a few months. ' And since a few months were not enough, I stayed there for a few years. " 

" These pressures, these censures, lead to the fact that people no longer speak "

"I collected numerous testimonies which spoke of pressures, censorship and self-censorship in the agrifood sector but also in municipal councils, in National Education ...", she continues. "I called this phenomenon the factory of silence: how these pressures, these censures, lead to the fact that people no longer speak and there is no longer any public critical say on the food industry in Brittany."

"I had a hard time passing my survey"

According to Inès Léraud, this "phenomenon" also affects the local press, like the cover of the Chéritel group scandal, "a major wholesaler of fruit and vegetables in Brittany". By investigating from 2017, she discovered "a massive fraud of tomatoes bought at low cost abroad and relabelled like French tomatoes". Why had newspapers in the region not taken up the subject? The journalist establishes a link with the libel conviction for the Telegram , after an article on the illegal employment of Bulgarian workers within the group - Chéritel was finally convicted for "haggling offense" in this file, an appeal was launched. 

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"It traumatized the local press, which hardly talks about escapades anymore because it is afraid of other libel inquiries", analyzes Inès Léraud. "I myself found it difficult to get my investigation through the national media because they were afraid to investigate someone who was a prosecutor."

"A first defamation trial, then a second"

Based in the region, Inès Léraud was then alerted by citizens on another matter. "For decades, human beings, wild animals and domestic animals have been found dead on Breton beaches, and the link with green algae is fairly easy to demonstrate," she summarizes. "He is known, but he is completely denied by the public and administrative authorities." 

" A witness who worked for an association lost subsidies "

On this subject also linked to intensive agriculture - whose pollutants favor the proliferation of said green algae -, the journalist made a comic strip, with Pierre Van Hove, Green algae: forbidden history (La Revue Dessinée-Delcourt). The work was nearly translated into Breton, but a regional publishing house abandoned this project, for fear of losing subsidies from the Regional Council. 

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Because Inès Léraud's work quickly had its share of consequences. "When I was investigating Triskalia, witnesses received death threats. Another witness who worked for an association lost subsidies. I was badly discredited on the social networks of these agrifood groups, and little by little as a child, I had a first defamation trial, then a second, "she testified. Invited to the Quintin Book Fair in Côtes-d'Armor, the author was simply deprogrammed. "I learned that the deputy mayor, who works at the Chamber of Agriculture, led by FNSEA, the main agricultural union, had asked the members of the book fair that I should not come."

"My work has won the confidence of the locals"

Fallout sometimes causing difficulties for the independent journalist, who for example had to hire a lawyer. "I have no editorial staff, I am quite fragile," she underlines. To support it, the collective at the origin of the tribune published by Liberation was born "on the initiative of simple Breton citizens". "Because my work has won the confidence of the locals over the years: at first they were wary, and then they understood that I was not there to judge the practices but to understand the mechanisms of Breton society dominated by the food industry, "she enthuses. "They understood the importance of having a reporter investigating at home."