Since French farmers resumed their fight on certain roads in France, their Riviera counterparts have remained behind. “The Alpes-Maritimes did not follow the agricultural movement, it was wantedconfirms Jean-Philippe Frère, president of the Departmental Federation of Farmers' Unions (FDSEA). But be careful, this does not mean that we are not united and that everything is fine. Far from it.”
For him, “Our demands here are just different from those of our colleagues who are fighting against Mercosur. And who are right to do so.”
He warns: “Do you know what will end up happening in France? It is that we will lose the transparency and the guarantee that we have on what we produce. So not only will the farmers lose economically but so will consumers because they will have to feed on hormone products!”
“Not taking our jobs into account has become unbearable”
Jean-Philippe Frère who is also an olive grower in Rouret announces, “discontent is general here too and we are not far from taking to the streets to say it too. Take my word for it. The failure to take into account our professions, our sectors, our needs, all of that , it's become unbearable, take the demands from not even a year ago, they're exactly the same! And respect for what we done every day.”
And the farmer lists, in the department, the protection of agricultural production areas, the multitude of regulations, the question of land, the agricultural water policy…
“Water and land are the two pillars for maintaining some agriculture here, unfolds Jean-Philippe Frère. I have been fighting for ten years for agricultural pricing of water which does not exist everywhere in the department, except for the metropolis of Nice and a few municipalities which decide so. You just need a political will which does not exist. And don't go saying that farmers are big consumers of water, that's not true: for our land we consume only 1.6% of the department's total consumption, or 2.5 million m3 out of the 200 million .”
“So the result of all this, concludes Jean-Philippe Frère it is that in the next six years we will lose another half of the farmers in the department and that from 1,000 we will go to 500. I tell you again, the Riviera farmers will take to the streets again with the same demands as the last year and two years ago.”
