The Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard, had chosen to go, Saturday, November 30, to Sully-sur-Loire (Loiret), on the farm of Jean-Louis Lefaucheux, to make so-called announcements “of simplification”. This mixed farmer and breeder is secretary general of the Loiret federation, departmental branch of the National Federation of Farmers' Unions (FNSEA). It is true that the decisions taken by the government were in line with the demands of this union which also welcomed these measures.
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Mme Genevard has, in fact, unveiled the project to set up a “guidance council for crop protection”. Created by decree, this council, chaired by the minister and bringing together stakeholders including farmers, research institutes and manufacturers of phytosanitary products, will aim to “prioritize instruction” by the National Agency for Health Safety, Food, Environment and Labor (ANSES) requests for authorization of inputs, according to the needs of the agricultural sectors. This decree should also encourage ANSES to facilitate the mutual recognition of products already authorized at European level.
Two days earlier, farmers members of the FNSEA associated with members of the affiliated union Young Farmers had symbolically blocked the entrance to the Anses health agency in Maisons-Alfort (Val-de-Marne). They also attacked the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, in Paris, by building a concrete block wall in front of the establishment and welded the doors of the French Office of Biodiversity (OFB) in Toulouse. Actions taken, according to them, to denounce the «obstacles» of administration.
“The account is still not there”
Concerning the OFB, which ensures an environmental policing role, the general director must “immediately ensure the discretion of weapons in the event of control”said M.me Genevard, explaining that there will be “gradual deployment on an experimental basis (…) wearing a pedestrian camera ». The minister also said she was ready to simplify the examination of breeding projects in order to reduce delays and limit controls.
Unlike the FNSEA which judged that these announcements were going in the right direction, the Confédération paysanne denounced them. « There is nothing on the central questions of income and support towards the ecological transition »reacted Laurence Marandola, president of this union, before adding: “For certain measures, it is not simplification, but irresponsibility, with ANSES which must be under the orders of the ministry, the profession and the pesticide industry. » “The account is still not there”, a reacted for her part, Véronique Le Floc'h, president of Rural Coordination explaining that her union would continue its actions. The FNSEA, for its part, asked its troops to mobilize again, on December 9 and 10, to continue to put pressure on the government.
