Jean-Luc Boujon (in Cours-la-Ville) 8:58 a.m., February 1, 2024
Since the beginning of the movement, farmers have denounced the madness of the standards that burden them and the controls of all kinds that they undergo on their farms. In Cours-la-Ville, in Haut-Beaujolais, a farmer was summoned to the gendarmerie after cleaning the ditches which bordered his fields.
Farmers who, since the start of the crisis, have denounced, among other things, the madness of the standards which overwhelm them and also that of the controls of all kinds which they undergo on their farms regarding their hedges, their fields, their water or their soils... A farmer in the Rhône was checked after cleaning the ditches that bordered his fields, which he should not have done. Result of the check: a summons to the gendarmerie and a fine to pay even though the practice is ancestral. Europe 1 went to Cours-la-Ville in Haut-Beaujolais.
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“These are practices that have always been done”
A year and a half ago, after cleaning ditches at the edge of his fields, Laurent Goujat, a Charolais cow breeder, saw two controllers from the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) arrive on his farm who accused him of have dried out a wet area. “We removed the sediment, we redid the flow of water. These are practices that have always been done,” he says at the microphone of Europe 1.
"We saw two people in our plots taking samples. We went to meet them to find out what was going on. You should know that these are people who are armed and they immediately explained to us that "There is going to be a sanction, that it is criminal. There was no discussion possible and they tell us that we will have to come and justify ourselves, that the procedure has been launched, that it is like that" , he remembers.
"We're on file... like a delinquent!"
The Charolais cow breeder is summoned to the gendarmerie for a formal interrogation. "So we came to justify our work and the way we did it. Then, we answered questions, we were registered with our name, first name, date of birth, then we had our photo taken in front of a wall. We're on file... like a delinquent!" he gets angry, denouncing the principle of regulations “which one day had to be decided in an office and which is not adapted to what we experience on the ground”.
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“We wanted to do the right thing, in the interest of our animals”
The impression is very unpleasant, "there is a feeling of anger when we experience these moments, of injustice too, because we wanted to do well, in the interest of our animals, not to harm nature" , he slips. In the end, Laurent Goujat will choose to pay a fixed fine of 300 euros rather than hire a lawyer to challenge the sanction in court.
A story that has become commonplace on French farms, according to farmers who are finding it increasingly difficult to tolerate this “environmental police”.