Megabasins, hedges, farms… Why the agricultural orientation bill is considered too unambitious on an ecological level
More production, less ecology ? MPs began examining the draft orientation law for agriculture in the National Assembly on Tuesday, May 14. Supposed to appease the anger of the agricultural sector which erupted during the winter, the text contains measures to promote, in particular, the training and transfer of farms. But environmental defenders say it lacks ecological ambition. “THE government set as its goal the resilience of our agriculture in the face of climate change. But here, we have an empty and dangerous text regarding violations of environmental law.”denounces to franceinfo the environmentalist deputy Marie Pochon, whose group defended a preliminary rejection motion. Franceinfo details the most contested measures.
Opponents of the text fear that there will be a proliferation of mega-basin projects, these reservoirs of water drawn from groundwater then used for irrigating agricultural land. The flagship article of the bill provides in fact to devote “agriculture and fishing” as being “of major general interest”. For its detractors, this notion is a call to the administrative judge to facilitate certain projects when they are weighed against an ecological issue. The national secretary of Ecologists-EELV, Marine Tondelier, sees it as a means of “promote the installation of megabasins” and of “factory farms”.
But for the Minister of Agriculture, this provision would be a way of keeping a “balance” between environment and agriculture, otherwise, “in the end, we will sacrifice our agriculture”. “We had given the feeling, sometimes at the national level, sometimes at the European level, that it was agriculture that was suffering”affirmed Marc Fesneau at the microphone of franceinfo at the beginning of May.
Another measure pointed out: the“acceleration of litigation” in the event of an appeal against water storage projects or the construction of livestock buildings. This reduction in delays would be “to the detriment of associations and local residents who would have less time to gather, organize and present arguments concerning environmental risks”says Greenpeace in a press release. In his opinionthe Council of State also warned the legislator on the “risks of constitutionality”when the Defender of Rights considers, in hers (in PDF)that there would be a “unjustified infringement of the right of appeal”.
Marc Fesneau defended himself from wanting to promote “large farms” through the bill. “They’re not big [exploitations] obviously, but we need to produce, breeding buildings”taking poultry production as an example. “We are not going to feed people with a henhouse of 50 hens”he illustrated.
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