From April 14 to 30, all citizens can give their opinion on the future of the French agricultural model via an online questionnaire. An agricultural orientation law will then be submitted to the deputies in the autumn. Far too short a deadline and biased questions, believe several associations.
“Fifteen days to consult the French in the middle of the spring holidays, it’s really disappointing”, regrets Astrid Bouchedor, advocacy manager for the Terre de liens association, about the public consultation on the new agricultural orientation and future law (LOA). Since April 14 and until Sunday 30, all citizens are invited to answer a questionnaire in order to say what should be, according to them, the agricultural model of France in the years to come. This survey comes within the framework of a major consultation which has mobilized the actors of the agricultural world since the beginning of January and which should lead to a bill submitted to parliament in the fall.
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The LOA, Emmanuel Macron’s campaign promise, will have to integrate measures on the installation, land, training and support for farmers by 2030, knowing that nearly half of those who are already installed will take their retirement within ten years. This is the first time that an agricultural orientation law – France has had six since 1960 – has been the subject of public consultation. “And we were delighted for a law that concerns all French people, not just farmers, says Astrid Bouchedor. ” We are at a turning point where we can really commit agriculture to another model that is able to respond to the challenges of climate change”.
“The challenges of tomorrow’s food system are how our land will be managed and what choices we will make for our plates”.
Laure Piolle (France Nature Environment)at franceinfo
According to several associations involved in the consultations, the consultation was initially to begin this winter and last a month. “We were not informed of the launch. There’s been very little publicity around it.” says Laure Piolle, facilitator of the agriculture and food network at France Nature Environnement, who also deplores the formulation of the questions. “You are asked, for example, if you think that climate change is an opportunity or a threat, details Astrid Bouchedor. We could very well answer both, it all depends on how we interpret it. There are very few open questions, it’s a lot of MCQs, so that’s frustrating”.
Feeding the algorithm with “keywords”
Despite their frustrations, France Nature environnement and Terre de liens, like the Future Generations association, have tried to mobilize citizens via social networks. “We encourage people to participate because we actually think that it was a deliberate choice to do this consultation on the sly”.
“We finally want to catch the ministry off guard with a good number of consultations that will be filled out, sent out”.
Astrid Bouchedor, advocacy manager of Terre de liensat franceinfo
Even if it means guiding the answers, assumes Astrid Bouchedor: “People have the responsibility to reformulate their own texts, but it also seems important to say what are the key messages conveyed by the civil society organizations which are actively involved in these discussions”.
Participate in the consultation, for a fair, sustainable and resilient food system, with:
Generalization of#agroecology
Territorialization of agri & food systems
meat consumption@CollFeedI participate before April 30: https://t.co/mYS2lJpwNB
– France Nature Environment (@FNEasso) April 25, 2023
“We know very well that this kind of public consultation works like that. We will be on an occurrence of keywords, that’s how they will be analyzed, continues Astrid Bouchedor. So if words like organic farming or agroecology come up regularly, the government will be forced to take them into account. We cannot ignore this request for a reorientation of the model”. At France Nature Environnement we also suggest the terms of “farm restructuring” And “territorializing food systems”.
In the consultations, “a very strong conservatism”
Will the results of this public consultation be taken into account in the content of the bill? “We are going to ask to have feedback already on the number of contributions that have been received. The analysis that is made of it”, indicates Land of links. At France Nature environment, “we hope for a summary that really highlights the responses of citizens, explains Laure Piolle. And that in the national consultations, we can integrate the voice of the citizens to the proposals that we make”.
But the content of these round tables hardly encourages optimism, says Astrid Bouchedor: “We are very sure of the observation and above all we do not really go into the divisive points. The regional consultations were organized by the chambers of agriculture which are chaired almost solely by the FNSEA, in all the territories of France. So we are still really on a very strong conservatism “.
The consultations are supposed to be completed at the end of May. The agricultural orientation and future bill must be finalized in June before being submitted to deputies and senators “in the fall”, promises the Ministry of Agriculture.