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Maxime Berthelot
Published on
Oct 1, 2024 at 8:00 p.m.
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Originally from Sourdun (Seine-et-Marne), where he operates nearly 175 ha of cereal cropsClément Torpier was one of the figures of the national protest movement of peasant worldlaunched atwinter 2024. President of the union Young farmers from Île-de-France (JA IDF), he impatiently awaited the appointment of the new government led by Michel Barnier (LR)so that the emergency measures promised by his predecessor can finally be applied. Interview.
After almost three months of waiting and inaction, France finally has a government and the farmers a minister: Annie Genevard. Given the challenges your profession faces, are you reassured?
The appointment of Mme Annie Genevard as Minister of Agriculture is a good thing, because it’s about time! A certain number of points, see all of our demands, have been blocked since the dissolution of the National AssemblyJune 9, 2024. This new government was therefore extremely anticipated. There is urgency.
We will judge the new Minister of Agriculture on her actions
In reaction to the national movement of angry farmers this winter, the previous government launched the Agricultural Orientation Law, presented to the Council of Ministers on April 3. Do you expect the new minister to apply it or are you asking her to go further?
On paper, this law is going in the right direction, but to be applied, it must already be passed. However, to my knowledge, it still had to go back before the National Assembly (the legislative process of the law was interrupted by the dissolution of the Assembly on June 9, 2024, editor’s note).
Mme Genevard has already received union delegations from the JA and the FNSEA. According to her first speeches, she seems to have the will to act and d‘accelerate on this file. We will judge on his actionsand nothing else. THE expectations are high and the significant pressure.
Precisely, the minister declared “to ensure that in the coming weeks, the first results are seen in farmyards”. What do you ask him first?
The application of the great agricultural orientation law expected, and in particular its aspect concerning the simplification administrative. To give you an example, maintaining a hedge bordering a farm requires 14 successive regulations. It’s impossible to follow!
Then, we request the establishment of emergency measures on two levels: livestock epidemics, for which we want health support andcompensation for losses ; and the disastrous weather conditions that we had this year.
We must defend French farmers at European level
THE heavy precipitation added to low sunlight impacted crop yields. On my farm, it is 40% loss. Humidity is conducive to the development of mushrooms or from maladiesand besides that, the restrictions on phytosanitary tools to protect crops are more and more numerous. This is no longer tenable.
In Seine-et-Marne, the cultivation of sugar beets symbolizes your demands, particularly after the ban on the use of neonicotinoids in France to treat plots, while these products are used in certain cases elsewhere in Europe…
This is a crucial subject on which we await a clear position from the government. We are being deprived of the means of production, while we must face the consequences of climate change. We therefore ask the minister to defend French farmers at European level, in terms of competitiveness and of sovereignty.
We will be vigilant about the application of the European Green Deal (set of measures proposed by the European Commission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Europe, editor’s note), Common agricultural policy (Pac) and the free trade agreements in discussion with South America.
We will be very attentive in the coming months. Mme Genevard is from Doubs, she will now enter the tough ones.
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