In Corcoué-sur-Logne (Loire-Atlantique), a giant methanizer project, one of the largest in France, divides the inhabitants. Its objective: to transform nearly 500,000 tonnes of organic matter per year.
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A demonstration gathered 350 people on Saturday September 17 in Corcoué-sur-Logne, south of Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), to denounce the largest methanizer project in France intended to produce biogas from organic waste, noted a AFP journalist. “They will know what a Gallic village is”quipped Claude Naud, the mayor of this town of some 3,000 inhabitants, who demanded “a moratorium” on this project initiated in 2019.
>> Evolution of agriculture or outdated energy? Near Nantes, a mega methanizer project divides inhabitants and breeders
The demonstrators, who marched for the first time in February 2021, were 500 according to the organizers and 350 according to the gendarmerie. They strolled in music in the sunny streets of the village behind a banner proclaiming “Stop methanisation XXL” and with signs including one showing a cow transformed into a gas canister and covered with the word “no”. Attac and EELV flags were also visible.
“Peasants are not made to produce plants that we will burn, destroy, to ferment, to produce gas”, commented Julien Durand, a retired farmer from Notre-Dame-des-Landes, who was an emblematic player in the fight against the abandoned airport project in the north of the department. The role of farmers “it is first and foremost to feed the population healthily”, he added. The scale of this digester is “too important because it does not meet a local need, so we have a lot of transport, importing raw materials, as well as exporting products”continued the former farmer, whose presence was welcomed by the organizers.
The giant “Métha Herbauges” biogas plant is run by the cattle breeders’ cooperative Coop d’Herbauges and the Danish company Nature Energy. The idea is to provide farmers with additional income through the management of their livestock effluents, manure and slurry, as well as intermediate crops (rye, sorghum) to make gas.