The project to expand a park of mega-tomato greenhouses is controversial in the Channel. It is considered excessive, not very ecological and without local positive impacts.
Greenhouses five to seven meters high, on an area equivalent to 45 football fields: deemed “excessive”, the “Les Serres du Buat” project is causing controversy in the Manche, in Isigny-le-Buat. Supported by the Dutch tomato giant AgroCare, it meets opposition from activists and local authorities.
This is in reality a project to enlarge an already existing park, which would increase from 12 to 32 hectares. We are talking about mega-greenhouses of tomatoes grown above ground, installed under lights and supplied with a nourishing liquid.
The Stop Industrial Tomatoes collective denounces a project that is not only “disproportionate” but which “destroys a village”. Questioned by France 3 regions, its members affirm that this enlargement is “contrary to all current directives” since it is based “on fossil energy”, is “fully heated” and “lit”. “It’s a crazy expenditure of energy and we mainly produce fruits and vegetables out of season,” they insist.
“Locally, it doesn’t bring us anything”
On the town hall side, there is no more enthusiasm. “Locally, it doesn’t bring us anything,” judges the first deputy, Frédéric Laheurte. “There are no new buildings for tomato workers, no children in schools and the financial compensation is almost zero for the municipality.”
Opponents of the project won a battle since the prefect of the department, Xavier Brunetière, decided not to grant environmental authorization to “Serres du Buat”. It identified “shortcomings and inadequacies that do not allow a complete understanding of the impacts of different natures on the environment near and far from the planned site”.
The prefect considered that the “proposed (environmental) compensation measures” are “insufficient”, “the conditions for issuing an exemption from the appropriate protection of the protected species concerned are not met and all the impacts on the resource in water is insufficiently evaluated.
The standoff is not over, however, since AgroCare has the possibility of reworking its file to submit it again. She could thus ensure that it is adapted to administrative and prefectural requests, in order to obtain the green light this time.
