After a first crisis at the start of 2024 and demonstrations which lasted almost two weeks, agricultural unions are preparing for a new salvo. “For several months, the FDSEA and the Young Farmers have been warning about the crisis which is affecting all our breeders and their operations. After some progress due to our actions last winter, this remains insufficient for our farmers,” underline the majority unions. “The risk is imminent with the Mercosur agreement which is arriving. This jeopardizes our food sovereignty and our expectations regarding production levels. We demand an immediate end to all negotiations as long as “mirror clauses” are not integrated into this agreement in order to guarantee fair rules that respect our social, environmental and health standards,” demand the FDSEA and the JA Lozère.
They also have the support of many elected officials including the association of mayors of Lozère, which through its president Alain Astruc, in a press release, recalls that “the farmers of the department are mobilizing to defend family farming, essential to guarantee quality productions and preserve the identity of our Lozère territory”. Laurent Suau, president of the departmental council, emphasizes, for his part, that “in a hyper-rural department where the main economy is agriculture, we can only support these demonstrations”. And to ensure that the departmental council and elected officials are mobilized “to move the issues forward”. “I was in a meeting yesterday at the Ministry of the Interior, and one of the main issues is the simplification of standards.” “The issue of production constraints for our farmers, when we see products arriving from elsewhere which are not subject to the same rules, raises questions, and we can only be united,” assured Laurent Suau.
The MP for Lozère, Sophie Pantel, recalled her historic mobilization against this agreement. “This unfair competition is unacceptable. This free trade agreement, to which I am deeply opposed as are the colleagues in my group, would be a triple fault: social, economic and environmental. Our breeders can count on my mobilization and that of my group in the National Assembly to defend our proposed resolution which will be examined on Wednesday November 27 in the Economic Affairs Committee and then to request its registration in a public session,” she said. concluded.
