Morgan Ody, market gardener in Morbihan, member of the Confédération Paysanne, returns from Brazil where the G20 is taking place. Mercosur could be validated today at the Rio summit.
A job-destroying Mercosur
However, Emmanuel Macron affirms that countries are joining the French position of refusal, starting with Italy. Are farmers hopeful? “In any case, we will fight until the end so that this agreement is not signed between the European Union and Mercosur”she confides. I was in Rio all last week as part of the social summit to discuss with the peasant associations and workers of Brazil. They too, in fact, are against this free trade agreement.”
“What we are trying to do is to bring together our forces on both sides, in Europe and in South America against these free trade agreements. Ils are destroying jobs and local production on both sides of the Atlantic. Paying at the lowest price is no longer possible if we want to live up to sustainable production. But also reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect biodiversity.”
Pay farmers the right price
“We We are against such agreements and against the WTO, World Trade Organization, since the 1990s, explains Morgan Ody. We are against competition between farmers around the world.“Are demonstrations planned? “We do it every day. Yesterday, it was in front of car dealerships. Car we are against the fact of making an exchange where we sell European agriculture so that the Germans can sell their cars to Latin America.”
However, it is not Mercosur which is causing farmers' current problems, between lack of income and excess standards. “Our main problem is not being paid the right price. Most of the time, they are lower than production costs. This is what we must fight for. Free trade agreements make it possible to import at an even lower cost. We ask the French government, and also at the European level. So that the price paid to farmers is never lower than production costs.”
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