VIDEO. “A chicken, he lives on the surface of an A4 sheet, we have to stop that”

In his building, Francis raised nearly 52,000 chickens. But for more than 3 and a half years, he has refused to do intensive breeding. “A chicken, he lives on a sheet of an A4 surface, all his life, he has to lie down, he eats on a small surface like that, we have to stop that“, explains the breeder who is one of the few farmers to speak publicly about the operation of this agri-food system. Having refused to increase the number of poultry per m2 as required by his agricultural cooperative and the manufacturers he supplies, he now finds himself unable to work.”We breeders are not at all in control of the situation because at the level of the cooperatives and operators, they have all the power, they have the power of the feed factories, they have the power of the hatcheries, c is a monopoly that is well structured“, criticizes Francis.

Today, Francis has a clear vision of agriculture: he wants to practice reasoned breeding with a system ranging from 10 to 11 chickens per m2, i.e. to halve production per m2. “At the end, the breeder can no longer pick up the corpses, the dead, because there is no longer even room to walk in the building.“, says the farmer. 80% of French poultry is produced intensively and for breeders, it is very complicated to change production methods because this type of breeding requires enormous investment in buildings and they are often heavily in debt.”The breeder is a slave, he is condemned only to work, he is handcuffed and he cannot do anything“, breathes Francis.