Assimilated to dealers by the OFB, farmers from Orne offer bags of flour in the street

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In response to an agent from the OFB (French Office for Biodiversity), farmers from the FDSEA and Young Farmers of Orne organized a symbolic operation in front of the Orne prefecture, Thursday January 23, 2025.

“Lawless areas”

They set up a camping table on which they spread bags of white powder and wads of counterfeit bills. A staging after an OFB agent compared them, on January 15, 2025 on France Inter, to criminals having control over uncontrollable territories, on the grounds that by refusing controls they would make their farms lawless zones.

“Insulting for the agricultural world”

“At best, it was clumsy, at worst it was insulting,” railed Sylvain Delye, the president of the FDSEA of Orne, this Thursday, January 23 in front of the prefecture.

We compare our products to drugs that kill, but it is the opposite that we strive to make people understand. The OFB must change its mentality because it sees us first as polluters rather than as producers.

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At his side, Régis Chevalier considers the comments of the OFB agent to be “insulting to the agricultural world”. And he also rails against the attitude of the agents when he is controlled.

They arrive with a pistol in their belt, it's incredible! We're not thugs!

Guillaume Larchevêque, from the FDSEA, hits on this comparison “between the dealers who make shit and us, quality products”.

“And if we ever make the mistake of cleaning a ditch thinking that it was a watercourse, we are taken to the gendarmerie for a morning to explain it. They really treat us like drug dealers. And I won’t worry about what the neighbors thought of our stay at the gendarmerie…” Sylvain Delye bounces back.

Elections to the Chamber of Agriculture

Against the backdrop ofelections in the chambers of agriculture, which take place from January 15 to 31, 2025, the fifteen demonstrators of the day, unionized with the FDSEA, took advantage of this symbolic operation to denounce all these untimely controls to which their profession is subject.

“They already think we are guilty”

“We are not saying that we no longer want control, we just want the standards to be simplified. We would like an inspection per year and per farm and above all for mentalities to change because when the inspectors arrive, they we already think we are guilty and we are afraid of having done wrong,” the farmers say.

Above all, they demand “serenity” on their exploitation “after more than a year of combat”. Above all, they want “everything we asked for at the start of 2024 to become law and, therefore, for us to have fewer controls”.

This symbolic operation was part of a national appeal. It lasted less than an hour and the farmers left with their merchandise: “Have you ever seen dealers throwing their merchandise over gates or into the street? And ours is quality, so we keep it! », laughed a demonstrator.

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