when the FNSEA refuses to facilitate the care of certain farmers sick from pesticides

By fighting too much for the use of phytosanitary products, does the FNSEA sometimes play against the farmers it is supposed to defend? ​In December 2021, the union organization published a press release. She welcomes the inclusion of prostate cancer in the list of occupational diseases. And even notes: “This creation will make it possible to compensate farmers and employees exposed to plant treatment products during their professional activity so that they can benefit from better financial support in the event of the disease occurring. ”

However, the journalists from “Complément d’investigation” discovered that behind the scenes, the FNSEA sometimes adopts a completely different posture. They got their hands on exclusive documents: the minutes of meetings of COSMAP, a commission which reports to the Ministry of Agriculture. This is where the criteria for registering occupational diseases for farmers are decided. In 2011, the FNSEA opposed the listing of Parkinson’s disease. Same scenario in 2013 and 2014 concerning lymphomas. In 2021, on the other hand, the organization will not oppose the creation of the table concerning prostate cancer, but it will advocate for the most restrictive criteria.

Contacted by “Additional investigation”, a representative of Rural Coordination, a union rather favorable to the use of pesticides, said he was shocked by such a position. “They vote against their members. I am a farmer, and I defend farmers. While they, we no longer really know what they are defending…”, declares this trade unionist who sits on COSMAP.

A big deal

But then, why such a positioning? According to Jean-Noël Jouzel, a researcher at the CNRS who attended several of these meetings, the FNSEA’s choices could be dictated by financial considerations. “The FNSEA is the national federation of farmers and therefore farmers who are called upon to largely finance this recognition system (…). And it is this second hat which weighs more heavily, and which has always weighed more heavily in the history of the FNSEA.” Would the union organization therefore do everything to limit the costs of its members?

Contacted several times, the union’s press service did not wish to answer our questions on the subject.

Extract from “Agriculture: who does the FNSEA work for?”, a document to be seen in “Additional investigation” on February 29, 2024.