The FNSEA and Young Farmers published a list of 24 demands addressed to the government on Wednesday evening.
The farmers are angry. And while the actions are expected to intensify further in the coming days while the government has promised first announcements by the end of the week, the FNSEA and the Young Farmers made public their list of grievances on Wednesday January 24, 2024. . Deploring “a rain of incomprehensible decisions” which is falling on the agricultural sector, they call for “a strong structural change”. The unions make two major observations as a preamble to their demands.
First of all a national observation, with the fact that currently in France, “all the indicators of food sovereignty show that we are losing ground, decisions to revive production are imperative”, they estimate, then arguing that at the level European, “the very philosophy of the Green deal” must “be reviewed to restore visibility to farmers”. Calling for an “urgent” change, the FNSEA and the Young Farmers highlight three priority areas on which the government must work: the dignity of farmers in the exercise, fair remuneration for their work, and finally the need to restore acceptable conditions of practice of the profession.
Secondly, the unions establish two lists: one on the first measures to be taken urgently and another on legislative measures to be taken, undoubtedly, in a second phase. Among the emergency measures, several points. The first concerns the immediate answers that could be provided on remuneration:
Among the other emergency measures, several concern the complete and immediate rejection of all overtranspositions. Several proposals are being discussed, such as the cleaning of watercourses to prevent flooding or the wholesale rejection of non-treatment zones (ZNT). The unions are also calling for an end to the inconsistencies of the Green deal and ecological planning, with proposals such as obtaining an exemption on the 4% of fallow land or returning to the “Prairie Ratio to take into account decapitalization”. Finally, it is also a question of putting in place specific measures in favor of generational renewal. In this point, the unions particularly highlight the fact of “insisting on fiscal and social measures linked to installation and transmission”.
Regarding legislative measures, the FNSEA and the Young Farmers are calling for simplification on several points, such as the actions of the French Biodiversity Office (OFB) for example. Competitiveness is also highlighted in the legislative measures to be taken section.
