Avian flu: Etienne Breton of the Confédération Paysanne du Béarn wants to “defend open-air farming”

“The measures taken are clearly oriented towards the industrialization of agriculture” argues Etienne Breton, spokesperson for the Confédération Paysanne in Béarn, guest of Ici matin. In Béarn and Bigorre, as everywhere in France, poultry breeders must reconfine their animals again because of bird flu. The risk level was raised last weekend from “moderate” to “high” across the entire metropolitan area.

New outbreaks have been detected, particularly in the south of Landes, forcing the authorities to act. But these measures are not going in the right direction for the agricultural union of the Confédération Paysanne. “These biosecurity measures are unsuitable for small-scale farmingto small structuresexplains Etienne Breton. On our farms, it is impossible to confine poultry, with the size of the buildings we have, because poultry are made to go outdoors and we only have shelters to allow them to stay at night.“

“We point to the outdoors (wrongly) as the cause of the crisis…”

“We are not going to prevent migrants from circulating, viruses are also circulatingr” proclaims Etienne Breton, spokesperson for the Confédération Paysanne in Béarn, but he prefers to highlight the experiments being carried out in France. “It’s a fight with the administrationconcedes Etienne Breton, to promote this experiment which is taking place on 114 farms in France, so that we can continue to practice free-range farming.”

These demands had already been put forward during a demonstration on June 8, 2023, at the administrative city in Pau. An activist from the Basque ELB union is also continued this Tuesday, November 12, 2024 for “insult to agentt” in this case an official from the DDPP, the departmental directorate for population protection. Several agricultural unions are calling for demonstrations in front of the Pau court as a sign of support.