The FNSEA requests a suspension of OFB controls

After the controversial remarks of an agent of the French Biodiversity Office (OFB) towards farmers whom he compares to drug dealers, the agricultural managers of the FNSEA and the JA are stepping up to the plate. “We ask that there be no further control of the OFB on our farms until their modalities and nature have been reviewed, protest Arnaud Rousseau, president of the National Federation of Farmers' Unions (FNSEA) and Pierrick Horel, president of Young Farmers (JA). Comparing farmers to drug dealers is a provocation and an affront to those who feed the country.”

It all started with a statement, this Wednesday morning, from an agent of this public establishment responsible for enforcing the law in the field of the environment. “Today, we have the feeling that what farmers want is to no longer see us on their farms. It’s the same as if the dealers asked the police to no longer come to the cities”declared Benoît Pradal, of the Snape-FO union, at the microphone of France Inter. One of the missions of the 1,700 agents of this institution created in 2020 aims to check in farmers' fields or private gardens whether they are complying with the legislation in force, which is sometimes complex to interpret in the field, including by the 'administration.

“The OFB must change its attitude”

“The attitude of this agent clearly shows the state of mind in which controls are carried out on our farms, continues Arnaud Rousseau. This is no longer tenable. We are not against checks, there are around 3,000 per year, but the OFB must change its attitude. We follow up on the words of the Prime Minister, François Bayrou, and ask as soon as possible for the convening of a Varenne meeting on standards and the environment..

The day before, François Bayrou, in his general policy speech at the Palais Bourbon, had led a charge against the environmental controls and standards to which farmers are subject, going so far as to qualify as “mistake” inspections “with a weapon” of the OFB. “I am committed (…) to calling into question the pyramids of standards by giving the initiative to users. he continued from the perch on Tuesday, the day after the meeting he had with all the agricultural unions in Matignon.

For his part, the director of the OFB, Olivier Thibault, who knows he is in the crosshairs of the public authorities – the current Minister of Agriculture Annie Genevard had voted against the creation of the OFB when she was a deputy – reacted cautiously, by dissociating himself from the speech of his agent. “The comments made by certain union representatives do not in any way commit our establishment,” he indicated while highlighting the «dialogue» with the agricultural world. For its part, the Rural Coordination requested the abolition of the OFB.