Patrick Mercier, Camembert producer in search of ecology

Camembert producer in Champsecret (Orne), Patrick Mercier, 61, recounts the changes his farm has undergone. “I am at school, I learned the intensive method, I practiced it. And in fact, today, the consumer asks us for something quite different, he asks us for total transparency in our work.“, he explains. Hence his desire to raise his Normandy cows on grass and hay, in organic farming. “We must stop spreading all these products harmful to health“, he says about pesticides.

If he admits to havingtrouble with left and right“, Patrick Mercier, on the other hand, says he is passionate about ecology, a “center ecologist”, according to his expression. He regrets that ecology is “represented by people who are really on the left, who consider that we must help everywhere, all the time. I am not someone who goes looking for help, I consider that the farm economy must be self-sufficient.“Pro-European, he admits having had”a little hope“with the candidacy of Michel Barnier, whom he met, in the Republican primary. And even if his favorite will not participate in the presidential election, he assures us that he will vote no matter what.

“My voice counts” is a series of reports that give voice to citizens. The franceinfo channel 27 reporting teams crisscrossed the territories to meet the French people in order to question them about their concerns and expectations vis-à-vis politics and in particular presidential candidates.