Accused of “greenwashing” by its detractors, a pragmatic transition tool for its promoters, this certification has developed at full speed in a few years.
A name that inspires confidence, a rural logo… Have you noticed this “high environmental value” label among your merchants? Created in 2012, this certification is experiencing rapid growth, to the regret of environmental protection associations and organic farmers. According to them, the environmental claims displayed by the acronym HVE are only “green washing”. In January, several associations asked the Council of State to ban it. On the occasion of the Paris Agricultural Show, franceinfo looked at this label, which has garnered many criticisms.
A certificate popularized by winegrowers
Winegrowers were the first to take an interest in the HVE label. In 2017, they make up most of the 800 or so certified farms in France and see this label as an opportunity to attest to a virtuous approach, without the strict constraints of organic farming in terms of the use of pesticides and other fertilizers. from synthetic chemistry (and by “strict” the AB label means “prohibition on using them”).
Former president of the Independent Winegrowers and now head of the National Association for the Development of HVE Certification, Jean-Jacques Jarjanette remembers having himself asked Stéphane Le Foll, then Minister of Agriculture, to obtain a logo, in addition to the label. However, it is no coincidence that the world of wine wants to make this certification, which was then very confidential, visible.
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Until January 1, 2023, two roads indeed led to certification. Path A, which still exists, is based on a points system backed by a list of criteria. Path B, which recently disappeared, granted it to farmers whose purchases of inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.) represented less than 30% of turnover. A gift for winegrowers, where “the ratio of inputs to turnover is on average 14%”against 41% across all cultures, according to the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), which estimates in a 2021 report (PDF) that “this certification cannot claim to support a real agroecological transition process”.
In June 2018, wineries accounted for 93% of HVE certified. In 2022, the meteoric success of the label has reduced this rate to 70%. The States General of Food, at the end of 2017, have a lot to do with it. They make this niche label a key tool of the national agricultural policy, by promoting the idea of introducing “50% HVE in collective catering, including 20% organic”. An objective recorded the following year by the Egalim law.
Finally, as part of the France Relance plan, the government is granting a corporate tax credit of 2,500 euros to certified farms. The boost – valid once and budgeted at 76 million euros – multiplies the number of labeled farms: from 5,399 on January 1, 2020, to nearly 30,000 in July 2022.
Much criticized certification criteria
Confident in the quality of the label, France has decided to make certified farms eligible for environmental subsidies under the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023-2027. But Brussels will confirm the criticisms, more and more numerous, with regard to the HCE: it is not up to the ambitions, in particular in terms of the fight for the preservation of biodiversity. Paris is hastily reviewing its certification criteria in 2022. ‘We had to remove things’outliers‘ and even in its new version, the label does not matches not at the level of EU requirements in anticipation of the ‘Green new deal'”explains Aurélie Catallo, agriculture specialist at IDDRI. Brussels got the better of “path B” and highlighted the inadequacy of a system decried by environmental NGOs and organic farmers.
“Most of the fertilizers and pesticides classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic (CMR), which are the most toxic to human health, remain authorized”agrees Nadine Lauverjat, general delegate of the NGO Future Generations. “We know the havoc they wreak on pollinators, biodiversity, water, air and soil, their effects on health are proven, but we can claim a ‘high environmental value’ and use them without problem”regretshe.
With four sections each requiring you to collect at least 10 points, pass the certification, “it’s a bit like having the baccalaureate”, summarizes an agronomist and former adviser to a chamber of agriculture on condition of anonymity. “If you are very bad at German as a second language, but you have a great grade in gym, that’s fine. With this weighting, what matters is to have the average”he laments, pointing to the absence of thresholds and criteria that are sometimes vague and too numerous.
An example ? The “irrigation” category. “This only concerns 10% of agricultural land in France. For the 90% who are not concerned, that’s already a quarter of the certification in the pocket”, gets annoyed Jean-Bernard Lozier, grain farmer. Representing the Confédération paysanne on the National Commission for Environmental Certification (CNCE), the latter “proposed that we rename this category ‘water management’, so that everyone is evaluated on this criterion, which we see today how important it is, but it was not retained”.
If he recognizes “some relevant indicators” for field crops – “Many farmers start from very far away” –Jean-Bernard Lozier deplores an evaluation centered on the means and not the results : “If I do mechanical weeding, I get points, but there is no evidence that I will not do chemical weeding after”he illustrates.
“This level of requirement could pass to the limit in 1995 or in 2000. But in 2023, it is very insufficient. We must raise the bar. By a lot. And quickly.”
Jean-Bernard Lozier, spokesperson for the Confédération paysanne in Eureat franceinfo
A former market gardening consultant, also anonymous, criticizes the generalization of a certification whose criteria “make no sense for market gardening”. “The references that exist for the use of pesticides in large-scale cultivation cannot be applied, so market gardeners are asked to apply standards that do not correspond to anything”he gets annoyed. “When you know the particularities of the job, you know that it is difficult to achieve without chipping away a little.”
Faced with these criticisms, Jean-Jacques Jarjanette assures us that the approach is “obviously” brought to evolve “provided above all that you don’t go too far in terms of requirements!” The HVE advocate acknowledges that “This is paradoxical”. “It must be accessible to as many people as possible, because what is in the shopping carts of the French is not organic products, the premium segment which costs 30% more expensive”, he argues. “Half of what ends up on our plates is imported, especially from countries with much less demanding than those that apply to conventional French agriculture”he argues. “To fight against this, we need a standard adopted by the greatest number.” Even if it means cutting corners on environmental ambitions.
A marketing tool more than transitional
For our former consultant, the HVE is “a bogus reference set up to respond urgently to a market”, against a backdrop of the organic crisis and huge delays. 16 years ago, during the Grenelle de l’environnement, France set itself a target of 20% organic agricultural area by 2020. In 2021, this rate was just above the 10%. In this context, collective catering has all the difficulty in the world in achieving the objectives of the Egalim law, while consumers, now aware of these issues, suffer from not being able to reconcile healthy eating and a drop in purchasing power.
“IThe purchasing groups have considered that the organic label cannot develop quickly enough in volume to become accessible to everyone. And since conventional agriculture does not benefit from a good image, iThey pulled this label out of the hat”, he analyzes, denouncing “forceps certifications” for marketing purposes. “We say to market gardeners: ‘If you want to sell to me, you have to switch to HVE’.” Pressure from mass distribution which “pushes hard-pressed farmers to get certified”. “I don’t throw stones at themhe insists. Unfortunately, they have no choice!”
“It has become a condition for cooperatives that want to claim to be more ecological in order to access certain markets”, abounds the researcher Aurélie Catallo. And this without bringing the expected benefits to farmers. Farmers in favor of the label, first and foremost the majority union, the FNSEA, “want the device to be supported because it is not yet translating into recognition in the market”.
“Whether it’s the government or the profession, there is this hope that the market will reward farmers who act for the environment.”
Aurélie Catallo, agriculture specialist at IDDRIat franceinfo
According to a report by the Court of Auditors published in June (PDF)this “environmental” label affixed to products that are less expensive than their neighbor “AB” further weighs down an organic sector in the midst of a crisis. “Studies have shown that a good portion of consumers give as much credit to the HVE only at the label AB”, recently annoyed Philippe Camburet, president of the National Federation of Organic Agriculture, on Reporterre.net. “Confusion is setting in and the repercussions are already there for organic farmers, with demand at half mast.”
Jean-Jacques Jarjanette for his part insists that the approach is “additoinal” organic. She encourages him “virtuous practices, which make it possible to move forward in an environmental approach, to set in motion farms which otherwise would never have considered taking these first steps”he summarizes. “Nothing prevents an HVE farmer from going further, including organic”, he pleads. But on the ground, surveys show that certification is not the hoped-for transition tool. “It emerges from all the analyzes that the specific effect of HVE certification on the changes in practices of certified farms is globally limited”writes the French Office for Biodiversity in a very critical report (PDF).
“If certified operators were able to change their practices, most would have made these changes independently of HVE certification”he continues. “In the majority of cases, getting the label does not imply a change in practice. It’s like putting a sticker on a state of affairs”explains Aurélie Catallo, who underlines the discrepancy between the chosen words “high environmental value” and the ambitions of the label. “‘It’s a little better’ or ‘We made some effort’, that would be more appropriate. But less of a seller, that’s for sure.”