For months, farmers have been calling for a simplification of the standards they must respect. A new demonstration was organized in front of the Marne prefecture this Friday, October 18.
Around a hundred farmers dumped manure on Friday morning in front of the Marne prefecture, to denounce an “administrative burn-out” and demand a “simplification” of regulations, almost a year after major demonstrations by the profession. Around thirty tractors and 150 farmers gathered in Chalons-en-Champagne at the call of Young Farmers and the FDSEA, according to the latter. “We can’t take it anymore,” we could read on a sign planted in the manure left in front of the prefecture, noted an AFP photographer.
Farmers in “real administrative burnout”
Farmers deplore a “cumulative number of standards, documents to complete, rules to remember, prohibitions” underlines the FDSEA in its call for mobilization.
“We have more and more farmers who are experiencing real administrative burnout.”
Catherine Pierlot (FDSEA 51)
In their sights, in particular the new nitrate directive, in application since September 1, which establishes a schedule for spreading effluents considered too complex and “inapplicable”. “It has become an obstacle course to do the smallest action in our fields,” explains Catherine Pierlot, recognizing that we must “change practices” but with the imperative “to consult agronomists and farmers”.
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A delegation met the prefect to request “short-term exemptions”. A request heard, according to Catherine Pierlot, but which is not sufficient: “an exemption provides relief, but does not resolve the problem”.
With AFP
