Emmanuelle Ducros 8:55 a.m., January 29, 2024

Every morning after the 8:30 a.m. news, Emmanuelle Ducros reveals to listeners her “Journey into absurdity”, from Monday to Thursday.

One of the demands of French farmers is to live from their work and to defend agricultural sovereignty. How is the France farm doing?

Not good. It has lost 20% of its workforce in 10 years, there are fewer than 500,000 farmers. Half of them will retire within 10 years. The trade balance remains positive driven by international exports of cereals, wines and spirits and seeds. But France, which was the largest producer of foodstuffs in Europe, is in deficit in its trade with its European partners.

What does it mean ?

The observation is painful: Not only have French products been replaced by those from other European countries in the EU market, but for many everyday foodstuffs, France is no longer self-sufficient for itself

Do we have any examples?

Shovel. Today, half of the chickens consumed in France are imported. More than half of fruits and vegetables. The decline in orchard and market gardening areas has been constant for 20 years. The number of cows has fallen by a quarter in thirty years. Milk is under threat. France was the leading egg producer in Europe just five years ago. It must now import massively. We are experiencing a great agricultural depression.

How do we explain?

Our production costs are plunging us. What is this due to? At the cost of our crazy bureaucracy. It's good to have standards... But France has pushed them to such a level of nitpicking that it is killing its farms. The cost of our work is a self-inflicted punishment. Labor in France is 22% more expensive compared to Germany. 35% compared to Spain and 45% compared to the Netherlands. We are not talking about third world countries. We are talking about our European neighbors. As a result, their products sell, our farms decline. Our obese state stifles agriculture with taxes and social security contributions.

Farmers also accuse environmentalists of sabotaging our agriculture.

We cannot blame them. The poultry or pork sectors, for example, have very small farms compared to the European average. But that’s still too much for green activism. As soon as there is a project to extend a henhouse, environmental standards are so high, there are so many appeals from local residents and NGOs, that farmers give up. Pig farm buildings are 25 years old on average, and that is not normal.

This great depression is going far.

Yes, the destruction of value in the agricultural sector also results in the absence of investment in processing. France produces potatoes, but not chips. Belgium is responsible for this. Durum wheat is transformed into pasta in Italy, which is returned afterwards. The list is endless. France has experienced deindustrialization, it is experiencing de-agriculturalization. This is a tragedy and a waste for a great agricultural nation like ours. We no longer want to produce here with our excellent environmental standards, we import what destroys nature elsewhere. A lose-lose operation.