It is a battle that has been going on for years. An opposition between the farmer who operates the industrial chicken coop of Lescout and his detractors. A hundred people gathered on Tuesday in this village of 700 inhabitants located about fifteen kilometers south-west of Castres to protest against theconstruction of a new building within the operation.
30,000 additional laying hens
This chicken coop is one of the largest industrial farms in France with currently 150,000 hens, according to figures provided by the breeder. The new building will accommodate 30,000 more. A figure far too high for the opponents.
A procession made up of residents, environmental activists, members of the Confédération paysanne, Attac, France Insoumise and other movements blocked the entrance to the factory for nearly two hours on Tuesday, thanks to tractors.
– Claudia Calmel
For the opponents denounce the nauseating odors which emanate from the henhouse. Paul lives 500 meters away: “It smells very strong especially in the summer. People who have terraces can’t even enjoy it.”
– Claudia Calmel
Opponents fear health risks
Opponents mainly denounce health risks. They obtained his services from the State to carry out a study on air quality. It should start in the fall. And it’s not too early for Jean-Luc Hervé, the president of the Lescout collective, opposed to the giant chicken coop: “We have been asking the State services for years to see more clearly about the impact of this farm-factory on air quality and public health. We finally got it. But for us, _the construction of this new building is incompatible with the precautionary principle_. The Tarn cancer registry for the town of Lescout lists 104 cases over three decades. The number of cancer cases per 100 inhabitants has been multiplied by 3.6. It worries us. And not just for cancers: when there are environmental problems, we know that there are a whole host of pathologies that follow: metabolic problems, reproductive problems, neurological problems, etc.
– Claudia Calmel
The Tarn prefecture indicates that there is no evidence to corroborate, for the moment, an excess incidence of cancer cases in Lescout and the surrounding area.
Once the air quality study has been carried out, the Lescout collective hopes to be able to impose filtration systems on the giant chicken coop to clean up the fumes released into the ambient air.
The breeder refutes the term farm-factory
Cyril Gallès, the owner of the Lescout industrial chicken coop, does not understand this new demonstration: “We have a building permit which is validated and confirmed by decision of the administrative court. After four years of proceedings, the appeals have been rejected. This building permit is therefore perfectly valid. Our operation is checked very frequently by the State services and to date, we have always been checked _in accordance with French law_. I completely refute the ideological term factory farm. Our site has begun a transition to an alternative farming method in favor of animal welfare. We had caged production and we are turning more and more to the outdoors. I note that there is a relentlessness directed towards our production site. Is it ideological? I do not know. I see among the opponents associations, unions and political parties. Me, I’m outside of all that: I’m a breeder.”
The opponents filed a new appeal before the administrative court to try to stop the construction of the building.