better remuneration, supervision of industrial margins… environmentalists defend their proposals

While the executive continues to cajole farmers after the lifting of blockages, environmentalists also want to take the slot before the start of the Agricultural Show.

Designated on several occasions as the enemies of farmers by the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, during the crisis, environmentalists took advantage of this spotlight by going to all the stages at the height of the movement. There is no question of letting up the attention and the Greens also presented, Thursday February 15, their ten measures for the agricultural orientation law, which the government must soon unveil. These are proposals, which they have been making for months, which passed under the radar before the blockages.

Among these proposals, there are these major principles that almost all parties share: better remuneration for farmers, control of industrial margins and the fight against unfair competition. But there is this common thread, which the environmentalist MEP, Benoît Biteau, himself a breeder, summarizes to franceinfo: “more green to get out of the red”. They want to support organic farming, prioritize access to land for those who want to set up a farm on a human scale, reward those who maintain a meadow there, with also, the tense point for some of the farmers, the gradual exit of phytosanitary products and pesticides.

Be more offensive and more visible

Environmentalists are starting a new tour of farms, starting Friday February 16, where they will be with milk producers in Ille-et-Vilaine. The headliners, who embody the subject, are increasingly identified. Benoît Biteau, therefore, himself a breeder and the Drôme MP Marie Pochon, daughter of a family of wine growers. A tight team, in contact, back, on March 1, at the Agricultural Show, but certainly with more cameras than usual.

Party members believe that the agricultural crisis can benefit Europeans. A deputy compares the episode with the yellow vests in 2018, “We were held responsible”the fuel tax, starting point of the movement, “We were being hit on, but look at the score we got a few months later at the Europeans… 13%… We are solidifying and expanding our base.” This is evidenced, according to a party executive, by the slight rise in the polls of their candidate, Marie Toussaint, “by being the punching bag, we were able to make our project visible.”