200 farmers, with around fifty tractors, mobilized this Wednesday, November 27, in Nîmes. Farmers dumped bins of rubbish in front of the DDTM, walled up the MSA, the agricultural social mutuality and dumped manure on the facade. Tire fires were lit in front of the Crédit Agricole, the Nîmes ring road, blocked. Farmers express their anger.
“I share their anger, I carry the message with them. The Chamber of Agriculture is at their side“, reaffirms Magali Saumade, the president of the Chamber. During the first mobilizations of farmers, at the beginning of the year, she asked “a Marshall plan for agriculture.” “We're not there“, she admits. “The proposals made by the Minister of Agriculture at the time, Marc Fesneau, were not implemented due to the dissolution of the National Assembly. There was supposed to be the presentation of the agricultural orientation law in July, but it did not take place. A lot of things are written in this law. We have a commitment from the new minister, Annie Genevard, to present this law in January.“
Mercosur has ignited the powder
This Tuesday, January 26, the day before the mobilization, French deputies in the National Assembly voted against the free trade project with Mercosur, but it is the European Union which will decide in the end. “I don't think this is just a symbolic vote. We can move the liness”, says Magali Saumade. “Today, 30% of meat consumption in France is done through collective catering. Of this 30%, 60% is imported. This is not normal! These products are not produced under the same technical and legal conditions as French products. We cannot ask farmers to do more and more with less. We have the safest agriculture in the world and it is not recognized politically and economically. It is not possible that French farmers do not live off their income. They carry the most beautiful mission in the world: feeding humanity.”
The testimonies of farmers encountered during the mobilization also reveal a strong anger against the MSA, the agricultural social mutuality : “I'm like them, there are times when I wonder who I'm talking to, if I'm talking to a wall“, breathes Magali Saumade. “We, at the Chamber of Agriculture, support all farmers in difficulty through the Réagir system. We have doubled the support for farmers in this context and that doesn't make me happy because it means that Gard agriculture is doing badly. We are told: for me it is the departmental level, we have to look at the regional or national level. It is no longer audible. No profession would put up with that!“
When asked if this movement will remain peaceful, she replies: “In your opinion? At a given moment, when people are not heard, when they are exhausted and when they make relatively simple proposals, I think that yes it can increase in intensity. I hope that this will not be the case and that they will have people who will respond to their request.”
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