PARIS (Reuters) – The French government presented on Wednesday its bill “guidance for agricultural sovereignty and the renewal of generations in agriculture”, a text eagerly awaited by farmers who have been protesting for several months.
The text, which initially provided for measures to help the establishment of new farmers, was reworked to include measures on administrative simplification and food sovereignty, while peasant discontent broke out in France, and throughout Europe. , at the beginning of the year.
This bill “should make it possible to give perspective to this end of the crisis”, declared Marc Fesneau, Minister of Agriculture, on RTL on Wednesday.
One of the main points of the text thus concerns the recognition of agriculture as a “major general interest”, in the same way as the defense of the environment, which will make it possible to give more weight to the agricultural sector in political decisions. .
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The measure was one of the government’s promises announced to the farming world in February when farmers multiplied roadblocks throughout France to protest in particular against foreign competition deemed unfair and against an inflation of standards, particularly environmental ones.
“It’s solemn in the declaration but it’s very practical,” said Marc Fesneau, emphasizing the concept of “food sovereignty”.
“It aims to ensure that each time we have a public policy project, a public policy action, we ask ourselves the question ‘does this contribute well to the objective of maintaining or even strengthening our food sovereignty and our food security?’” he added.
The bill also contains several simplification measures and others intended to promote the attractiveness of the farming profession, while a third of French farmers will be of retirement age in ten years.
EGALIM LAW BY SUMMER
The bill thus provides for the creation of a Bac+3 level diploma, known as “Bachelor Agro”, intended to increase the skills of professionals in the agricultural and agri-food sector.
On the side of simplification, the text wants to adapt the sanctions for farmers in the event of violation of the right to the environment, avoiding “infamous” penalties, reduce the time limits for litigation against agricultural or hydraulic projects and unify the regime applicable to the planting of hedges.
The thorny issue of farmers’ income is not directly addressed by the text.
Marc Fesneau recalled on RTL that it entered more into the future Egalim bill, which the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, promised would be presented “by the summer”. The Egalim system governs commercial relations, and therefore the setting of prices and farmers’ income, between producers, agri-food manufacturers and distributors.
As Emmanuel Macron had already done in February, the Minister of Agriculture advocated the establishment of an Egalim at European level in the face of the purchasing centers set up by distributors to circumvent national constraints.
The subject of pesticides is also not addressed by the text presented this Wednesday and which will be examined by the National Assembly from May 13.
At the beginning of February, Gabriel Attal promised a “pause” in the implementation of the Ecophyto 2030 plan, which aims to reduce the use of pesticides by 50% by 2030 compared to the 2015-2017 period in France.
Emmanuel Macron will receive professional farmers’ organizations “in the coming days”, announced Marc Fesneau.
The Farmers’ Confederation has already denounced the bill which “resembles more of a social plan than a generational renewal program”, reacted the agricultural union in a press release.
“Nothing on income and nothing on the distribution of land which are nevertheless the two major levers for massively settling peasants,” lamented the union.
Same criticism from the Rural Coordination side: “Sustainability (for farmers) must first be economic and financial, but the word income, remuneration, does not appear in this draft text”, regretted Véronique Le Floc ‘h, president of the union on franceinfo.
“We are far from the mark,” she adds.
For its part, the environmental NGO Greenpeace judged the text “not up to the challenges of generational renewal nor the agroecological transition”.
(Written by Blandine Hénault, with Sybille de La Hamaide and Bertrand Boucey, edited by Kate Entringer)
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