Lionel Gougelot // Photo credit: LOIC VENANCE / AFP 6:15 a.m., February 7, 2024
Organic producers are gathering in front of the National Assembly this Wednesday. They believe that they are the great forgotten ones of the government, which has only released around sixty million euros to revive a sector on the verge of asphyxiation.
The operators of this sector consider themselves to be the ones left behind by the government plan announced last week to calm the anger of farmers. They believe that agroecology is neglected by Gabriel Attal. That the government has made too many concessions to farmers at the expense of an agricultural model that they believe is more virtuous.
They are demanding a real organic plan for their sector which has been going through a crisis for two years. Among the demonstrators this Wednesday noon, there will be Sophie Tabary, organic farmer in the Aisne department.
A sector in danger
A farm of 100 dairy cows and three hectares of vegetable crops, converted to organic for over 15 years. Sophie Tabary, a farmer in Lerzy in Aisne, is fighting to preserve her model. But the crisis is there. With the decline in consumption of organic products, the sector is in danger.
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“We have been talking about the difficulties for two years: there is 30% overproduction due to the fact that the markets have collapsed, that people have consumed less because of inflation and the crisis in Ukraine. We're struggling a lot, there are a lot of organic farms that are in great danger, cooperatives that are in danger too. We're afraid that there will be people who will leave the boat. If they abandon it, it won't be because they cannot do it technically, but because they cannot do it economically,” assures the farmer.
“It’s the last straw”
And like all players in the organic sector, Sophie Tabary, who also chairs the network of organic farmers in Hauts-de-France, considers herself forgotten by the government in the announcements to respond to the agricultural malaise. She also says she is angry at the suspension of the Ecophyto plan, to reduce the use of pesticides, announced last week.
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"It's the last straw. For us, it's a step backwards. We're trying to make a model work that is more respectful of the environment and we're being talked about transitions and planning all the time. Everything suddenly, there is a farmers' demonstration and there is nothing more being done, it's not possible", she gets annoyed.
This Wednesday noon, Sophie will be before the National Assembly to defend the ecological transition in agriculture. With one regret, that of not having enough weight in the face of conventional agriculture.