France: faced with the revolt, the government postpones its agricultural reform
Caught up by the farmers' revolt, the government decided, Sunday January 21, to postpone
its bill on agriculture "
for a few weeks ", to respond to the demand for "
simplification
" of the sector, while demonstrations and blockages are taking place. continue in the countryside.
A tractor with a sign reading "no country without farmers" as farmers block the A64 highway to protest against taxation and falling income, near Carbonne, south of Toulouse, January 20, 2024. AFP - ED JONES
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Three days before the Council of Ministers where he was to present a long-promised bill “
in favor of the renewal of generations in agriculture
”, the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau announced its postponement.
“
Let’s give ourselves a few weeks
,” declared the Minister of Agriculture to the “Grand Jury” RTL/Paris Première/M6/Le Figaro, specifying that the objective was to see the text debated in Parliament “in the first half of 2024” .
Marc Fesneau justified this delay in order to add “
a simplification package
” to the measures already announced to facilitate the installation of new farm managers.
Marc Fesneau promised to fight against the “
feeling of downgrading
” of farmers, too often prey to contradictory “
injunctions
”, particularly linked to European rules, while calling on everyone “
to be responsible
”.
Taking note of a “
moment of exasperation
” with the multiplication of angry demonstrations in the countryside, the minister assured “to be on the side of farmers” in the face of a triple crisis, of trust with society, of European standards in particular. and the agricultural model in the face of climate change.
“We have a crisis which comes primarily from Europe.
It started in the Netherlands, then in Germany, in Poland (...).
There is a form of farmers' liver crisis.
They don't believe it anymore.
They have the feeling that they are being given injunctions, to produce more, quality products, but for which there is not sufficient remuneration, he said.
“
It’s a crisis of standards, European or national.
“Over-norming” [...] produces exasperation.
There is sometimes also an exasperation [linked to] the crisis of the model.
I am thinking of Occitania, where climate change poses profound problems
,” added the Minister of Agriculture.
Read alsoEurope: the agricultural world in turmoil from the Carpathians to the English Channel
The reasons for the anger of farmers in France
Since the fall, discontent has been growing: starting from Tarn, a peaceful movement to overthrow municipal signage has spread throughout France.
A way of saying that “#We walk on our heads”, a slogan taken from Narbonne on the Belgian border.
The tone has hardened in recent days with, since Thursday evening January 18 in Occitanie, the blocking of the A64 motorway but also rallies in front of administrations or on roundabouts reminiscent of the revolt of the “yellow vests”.
Increasingly onerous rules and standards
“
The physical hardship has gradually given way to a moral hardship which is due in particular to the enactment of rules and standards that are increasingly heavy to bear (...) at a given moment the cup overflows
,” said launched on Saturday Etienne Gangneron, president of the Cher Chamber of Agriculture to the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau.
The unions denounce the government's slowness in implementing the
promised administrative “
simplification ”.
“
The farmers who call us no longer even know what they have the right to do or not
” and do not feel “
properly supported in the face of climatic, geopolitical and health challenges
,” Véronique Le told AFP. Floc'h, president of Rural Coordination, second agricultural union.
These constraints, to which are added compensation deemed “
too late
” for sectors in crisis (viticulture, livestock), ruin
the “attractiveness
” that the sector needs to renew its aging farm managers.
The rejection of the European “Green Deal”
If France is the first beneficiary of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) with 9 billion euros in aid per year, its farmers are contesting with the utmost energy the strategy of greening European agriculture.
A central element of the EU Green Deal, a legislative project aimed at halving the use of chemical plant protection products by 2030 (compared to the period 2015-2017), was rejected in the European Parliament at the end of November.
But farmers, who welcomed the renewal of the authorization of the controversial herbicide glyphosate, fear seeing the return of this project and intend to weigh in before the European elections in June.
French farmers also denounce Brussels' refusal to extend into 2024 the exemption allowing fallow land to be cultivated (around 4% of agricultural land) while “
the food tension caused by the war in Ukraine continues
”.
Unfair competition
“
The cost of energy has exploded, the costs of inputs have increased, as have those of labor and animal feed.
The war in Ukraine disrupts flows with huge imports into Europe of cereals, poultry and sugar.
It disrupts all sectors, it lowers prices
,” Christiane Lambert, president of the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organizations of the European Union, explained to AFP.
“
Our children are served imported foods in canteens that we are forbidden to produce in France
,” she said.
The negotiation of free trade treaties (Mercosur) coupled with the imposition of restrictive measures fuels exasperation, she underlines, even if the triggers are different: “
the decline in livestock
” in the Netherlands, the “
fuel taxation
” in Germany.
Pesticides and fuel, means of production
Despite good yields, the fall in prices and the maintenance of high charges have reduced the income of cereal growers, who believe that we are "going into the wall" with the government's new strategy for reducing pesticides Ecophyto 2030. “ban without solution” insists the FNSEA, its mantra for pesticides, water sharing or the gradual increase in taxation on non-road diesel (GNR), “
negotiated in responsibility
” with Bercy.
(With AFP)
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