A few days before the opening of the Agricultural Show, Gabriel Attal will announce new measures to appease the anger of farmers, dissatisfied with the first announcements.
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As the Agricultural Show approaches, which promises to be tense, Gabriel Attal is taking the lead to avoid excesses. He must announce new measures on Wednesday February 21 to calm the anger of farmers, and take stock of the “simplification month”, with meetings between prefects and agricultural unions launched at the end of January. They have already resulted in the modification of 63 decrees, which often concern local and specific issues, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
For example, that at the Haute-Garonne prefecture in Toulouse, a month ago: the FDSEA was delighted to have been heard, because rules more restrictive than elsewhere in France have been relaxed on the use of fire, burning green waste or planting trees around watercourses. Simplified decrees also in Puy-de-Dôme on the use of water, or on the harvesting of wild boars in the Var. As for the prefect of the Somme, he communicates in particular on simplifications around the uprooting of hedges, already recorded before the farmers’ demonstrations.
2,500 proposals submitted by the prefectures
Indeed, farmers are mixed with this progress, which they consider insufficient. A Prévert-style list, which does not rejoice Frédéric Ferrand, farmer in Haute-Saône: “I think these meetings demonstrate good will”explains this member of the Rural Coordination, who participated in a meeting at the Doubs prefecture. “When I measure the anger in the countryside, it won’t be enough”he adds, without hiding his pessimism.
Because the requests are enormous: 2,500 proposals submitted by the prefectures since January 26, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. And some are getting impatient, like Antoine Jean of the Confédération Paysanne in the North. “The demand of farmers today is to have access to a decent income! It is not by moving the commas on standards that we gain access to a decent income”, he says. According to him, national measures on non-road diesel, for example, are not satisfactory for the moment.