The FDSEA and the Young Farmers of Bas-Rhin are mobilizing again this Thursday, November 28 in Strasbourg against the mille-feuille of procedures and administrative work which is increasingly encroaching on the work to be done on their farms. To combat too much paperwork, they shredded paper using a forage harvester to deposit it in front of the DDT (departmental territorial directorate).
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Too much paperwork, too much administrative work, always more standards and directives which result in new declarations to be made for farmers, they are fed up and have shown it to the departmental directorate of territories (DDT) of Bas- Rhine Thursday November 28. A hundred tractors paraded in a procession through the streets of the Alsatian capital before shredding paper in front of the DDT.
“We spend more time in the office than outside, even though it's not our core job, so we're fed up“, explains Michel Robin, future operator at Robertsau. “Today it is symbolic to be in front of the DDT, it is to say that we are fed up with papers“.
Farmers are sometimes helpless when faced with requests from the administration; they have to find out how to complete the requested document. Standards change quickly, and each time the documents differ, a real office job which keeps farmers busy, and increasingly so.
Mobilization of farmers from Bas-Rhin, November 28, 2024, in the streets of Strasbourg
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© Angélique Etienne. France Televisions.
“We know we have to take these steps“, explains Anna Binder, farmer in Sessenheim. “But it's very heavy. There is always paperwork to fill out. For example, on my farm we want to start a new potato crop. But to be able to sell them in supermarkets, you need a standard called “global gap”, and you must first fill out a 90-page file, referencing everything! It's huge, just to sell our product.”
In the procession, a forage harvester comes forward. Arriving in front of the DDT, the farmers dump their buckets filled with newspapers and cardboard boxes of all kinds. Swallowed by the forage harvester, they pour out in paper snow onto the DDT lawn.
The forage harvester shreds the paper, farmers are fed up with paperwork, Thursday November 28, 2024, in Strasbourg
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© Angélique Etienne. France Televisions.
The image is symbolic. Farmers want to shred papers, put an end to paperwork. Simplification was one of the measures promised by the government in January 2024, after strong mobilizations by farmers. They are now calling for concrete progress on this subject.
