A hundred farmers in the Channel install radars facing the sea to say “No to Mercosur”

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Monday November 18, 2024from 9 p.m., one hundred farmers responded to the call of the unions FDSEA et Young Farmers of La Manche to say “No to Mercosur” by gathering in Barneville-Carteret, route de la Corniche.

“We symbolically installed three construction site radars facing the sea to monitor imports coming by sea,” explains Jean-Michel Hamelpresident of the FDSEA of La Manche.

Mercosur, a free trade treaty at the heart of farmers’ anger

The possible signing, during the current G20 summit, of the free trade treaty between the European Union and the South American countries united within Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) is once again igniting the powder.

“This is unacceptable!” The resumption of negotiations is an insult to European agriculture and a disregard for consumer health! », Launch the two agricultural unions. They “firmly oppose the opening of the doors to 99,000 tonnes of beef, 180,000 tonnes of poultry meat, the equivalent of 3.4 million tonnes of corn, 180,000 tonnes of sugar ( i.e. the production of a French sugar factory), to 8.2 Mhl of biofuels (i.e. half of French production)…

All produced in unacceptable conditions : use of growth-promoting antibiotics, lack of traceability, active phytosanitary substances banned in France, some of which have been for more than 20 years, absence of social rights, deforestation, etc.

It is inconceivable that sustainable European agriculture will be replaced by that of other continents whose practices prohibited in Europe are less expensive environmentally and socially. Our organizations demand a total end to these negotiations and call on the Head of State and the French Prime Minister to enforce France's position to put a definitive end to these discussions! »

Taped panels

In October and November 2023, signs in thousands of towns and cities in France were symbolically turned upside down in the face of “normative fed-up”, with the slogan “We walk on our heads”.

In the Channel, around 600 had been. Some have even remained like this since, with the consent of elected officials because they are also confronted with administrative miscellany and French inconsistencies.

This Monday evening, farmers from the FDSEA and JA de la Manche have relaunched a similar action. As they left Barneville-Carteret, they began to tape up fake signs with the word Mercosur crossed out in red. “We printed 300 and also distributed them to colleagues in the Center and South Channel,” says Francois Rihouetsecretary general of the FDSEA, accompanied by Étienne Cousin, farmer in Yvetot-Bocage and his counterpart from the Young Farmers of La Manche.

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