Motorists who took the departmental 936 between Vélines and Saint-Antoine-de-Breuilh, at the route des Aimons, may have seen the yellow flags of the Confédération paysanne de Dordogne flying around a construction machine, this Monday, January 13. The excavator had begun to dig trenches in a field, where the wheat was beginning to emerge.
“60% of it will be destroyed,” predicts Didier Margouti, an active member of Conf’, who sowed the plot. Problem: this land never belonged to him and he never had authorization to cultivate it from the previous owner, who was none other than the Departmental Council.
Against careers
The root of the problem is above all the opposition of a few farmers and local activists (first and foremost Didier Margouti) against the neighboring company: Carrières de Thiviers. It was she who bought this 8 hectare land from the Department to continue its gravel extraction activity.
A collective, called Wheat and Gravel, was created to denounce the expansion of quarries on the alluvial plain. Steps had been taken to have this land purchased by the Terre de Liens foundation and leased to a young couple of farmers. But the purchase never went through. Sowing wheat there completely illegally was therefore, in all likelihood, a militant act.
Filing complaints
At the same time, the real buyer, Carrières de Thiviers, had asked the departmental archaeological service for a diagnosis of the land to find out if preventive excavations were necessary before starting extraction. It is this service which began working on Monday and was interrupted by the non-violent action of the Peasant Confederation.
“Our goal is first to save the wheat in place, then to save a plot of land from extraction and finally to question this artificialization of soils and its consequences,” explains Didier Margouti, specifying that the Confederation does not was requested only at the last moment. Four members of the union intervened on the spot.
The construction site is therefore at a standstill at the start of the week. The quarry management is due to meet the opponents on Tuesday January 14. She has already filed a complaint against them.
