“We are the opponents of an industrial agricultural model which destroys jobs”, affirms France Nature Environnement

Invited on franceinfo on Monday, the president of France Nature Environnement said he supports “the Peasant Confederation, the Movement for Organic Agriculture, Terre de liens” which are “the future of agriculture”, but not other unions like the FNSEA or Rural Coordination.

“We are the opponents, and we accept it, of an industrial agricultural model which destroys jobs, which does not pay farmers, which makes farmers sick and which is very globalized”asserts, Monday January 29, on franceinfo Antoine Gatet, president of France Nature Environnement, while around fifty environmental associations called, Saturday in a forum, to join the mobilized farmers.

For Antoine Gatet, it is not “no question of going to the dams with violent actions of the Rural Coordination”. France Nature Environnement supports “the Peasant Confederation, the Movement for Organic Agriculture, Land of Connections” which are “the future of agriculture”. The association calls “industrial agriculture” to do “its transition through agroecology” for not having “farmers in even greater need in the years to come.”

Franceinfo: We often find you in the fights against farm extensions and the construction of water reservoirs. Do you think that farmers want to see you alongside them at the moment?

Antoine Gatet: There are 6,200 associations in the region and we have been mobilizing and angry about the agricultural issue for 50 years and working with the agricultural world. We must pay attention to the fact that we do not have a single agricultural world. We have a somewhat industrial, somewhat productivist agricultural world, which is that of Rural Coordination, of the FNSEA. But we also have an agricultural world of agroecology, organic farming, short circuits, quality products. And this is the agricultural world with which we work. We have always made common pleas. And with this, we continue to campaign for another agriculture, an agriculture which is not of poor quality, which is not industrial. So we have already been involved with farmers for a very long time.

But you and some have differences of vision on the agricultural model to follow. How do you convince farmers that you can become a force with them?

There is obviously no question for us of going to the dams with violent actions by the Rural Coordination, because this is not the agricultural model that we support. On the other hand, it is obviously a question of continuing to work with these farmers. We are not the opponents of farmers, we are the opponents, and we accept it, of an industrial agricultural model that destroys jobs, of a model that does not pay farmers, of a model that sickens farmers and is very globalized. We have always been opposed to this model.

When farmers demand a reduction in the tax on non-road diesel, do you follow them on this issue?

The farmers who asked for a reduction in the tax on non-road diesel are those who have the main interest in recovering money by removing this tax, they are those who are very mechanized, they are those who grow very large crops, are the ones that have a very significant use of this. The tax on non-road diesel, there is indeed a support problem to ensure that this tax is correctly rebalanced. On the other hand, we do not support farmers and we do not understand the farmers who demand, as the FNSEA or the Rural Coordination does, the fact of no longer protecting wetlands which are nevertheless auxiliary environments for essential agricultural practice. , to protect fallow land, to continue to be able to spray pesticides and glyphosate on waterways and near schools. That’s not a model we support.

Which farmers are you calling to join you?

These are those of all farmers’ organizations. There is the Peasant Confederation, there is the Movement for Organic Agriculture, there is Terre de liens, which are associations in which we participate and into which we pay money to be able to install farmers. It is this local, quality peasant agriculture, which works with its environment, which is the future of agriculture. We tend to forget a little in all these areas, the fact that we have global warming underway. We have very significant environmental disturbances. We will have 20% less water available in the coming years. If agriculture does not make its transition, if this industrial agriculture continues to move towards industrialization and does not make its transition through agroecology, we will completely miss the point and we will have farmers, agriculture, even more in need in the years to come.