WILLIAM BOUCHARDON
Translated from original French
-January 29, 2024
“Angry farmers”, “we’re walking on our heads”, “we want to feed, not die”, “we’re on our knees”… This autumn, banners of this type have been multiplying in rural France, particularly along major roads. In recent days, farmers’ actions have intensified, and the government fears a general conflagration.
Farmer’s Outburst
The roots of this anger run deep: inability to make a living from their work, exasperation with bureaucracy, rejection of free-trade agreements, and sometimes opposition to environmental standards deemed too restrictive. While the FNSEA and Jeunes Agriculteurs, defenders of productivist agriculture, are trying to channel the movement, it seems to be escaping them. Giving an opportunity to point out the hypocrisy of these unions, which claim to defend farmers by locking them into a failed model?
During the autumn, the inhabitants of the French countryside saw the signs at the entrances to their communes turned upside down; with this, banners expressing the distress of farmers multiplied. In rural prefectures and sub-prefectures, the farming world deployed its usual repertoire of actions: tractor demonstrations, manure dumping in front of official buildings, “free shopping cart” actions or egg-throwing at supermarkets accused of making too high a profit… yet the national media did little to cover these protests. While national and international news was busy at the time on mundane matters, the fact that Paris was not affected by any demonstrations, coupled with a certain contempt for the “rednecks” of the countryside, no doubt also partly explains this lack of media interest.
From anger to revolt
The movement is now front-page news. The intensification of actions, with the blocking of roads and motorways, first in the South-West and then throughout France, and the multiplication of spectacular actions is undoubtedly a contributing factor. These modes of action, reminiscent of those of the Yellow Vests, are increasingly worrying the authorities. With some protest figures, such as non-unionized cattle farmer, Jérôme Bayle, threatening to boycott the Salon de l’Agriculture [1] and a blockade of Paris now announced [2], tension has risen a notch. The government’s fear that the large-scale blockades seen in Germany [3] , the Netherlands [4] , Romania and Spain could be imitated in France is taking shape. It is therefore trying to contain the fire by sending ministers and prefects to meet farmers, but has so far failed to convince them. Farmers form a social group that is difficult to repress.
The government’s readiness to negotiate contrasts with the usual Macronist approach to social movements, which consists of caricaturing and repressing them. This is surprising, given that farmers’ actions sometimes take a violent turn, as in the case of projectiles thrown at police officers in Saint-Brieuc on December 6, or the explosion of an empty DREAL Building in Carcassonne claimed by the Comité d’Action Viticole [5] on January 19. Massive dumping of manure and agricultural waste on prefectures is also widespread.
While the media are usually quick to denounce even the smallest rubbish fire or barricade erected with scooters, this time they are far more conciliatory. The double fatality in Ariège, where a farmer and her daughter were hit by a car at a roadblock, could also have served as an argument for the government to call for the blockades to be lifted. Gérald Darmanin [6] instead called for “great moderation” from the forces of law and order, which should be used “only as a last resort”.
Why the movement is not being repressed (for now)
While this treatment may come as a surprise, it can be understood in the light of several factors: the image of farmers in public opinion, the specific characteristics of this social group, and the symbiosis between the FNSEA and the government.
Firstly, embodying a hard-working rural France whose social utility is obvious; farmers enjoy strong sympathy in public opinion. In fact, a poll carried out on January 23 [7] puts the level of support for the current movement at 82% – 10 points higher than the gilets jaunes at the start of their mobilization. Similarly, although the number of farmers has fallen sharply in recent decades and now stands at around 400,000, the vote from this profession remains highly coveted across the political spectrum, if only to avoid appearing as urbanites disconnected from the rest of the country.
Secondly, farmers are a difficult social group to repress. When demonstrations take place in the countryside, gendarmes and farmers often know each other, which makes it less likely that the police will confront them. Fighting would also be complicated: the imposing size of tractors and the fact that their cabs are difficult to reach, protect farmers from potential repression. Besides, many farmers are also hunters, and therefore armed.
Finally, the govt is on very good terms with the two majority farming unions.[8] The Fédération Nationale des Syndicats d’Exploitants Agricoles (FNSEA) and the Jeunes Agriculteurs movement, allied in almost all départements, together won 55% of the vote in the 2019 elections to the chambers of agriculture. Their productivist, export-oriented vision is fully in line with that of the Macronists, who want agriculture to become increasingly mechanized, robotized and digitalized to boost productivity. The FNSEA president’s support for Emmanuel Macron during the first pension reform in 2019 [9] and the creation of the Demeter cell, a Gendarmerie intelligence unit dedicated to tracking down environmental activists opposed to agribusiness [10], bear witness to this. Thus, when the FNSEA and JA call for farmers to mobilize, it is only to better strengthen their negotiating position with the government.
The roots of anger
It was with this in mind that the two unions launched their autumn mobilizations. Their main objective was to win concessions from the French government on the forthcoming Loi d’Orientation de l’Agriculture (Agricultural Orientation Law), once again postponed following the mobilizations, and from the European Union on the Green Deal and the Nature Restoration Act. In the background, the FNSEA and JA also have in mind the 2025 elections to the chambers of agriculture. By demonstrating their ability to influence the balance of power with political leaders, they hope to further strengthen their power over the agricultural world. While this strategy may have worked at the end of 2023, the current movement seems to have escaped them. It has to be said that farmers have no shortage of reasons to mobilize.
They all agree that it is extremely difficult to make a living from their work, even if they work tirelessly every day. Between the end of 2021 and the second quarter of 2023, the food industry’s gross margin rose from 28% to 48% [11] Meanwhile, many farmers are selling their produce at a loss. This is particularly true of milk, where the industry, dominated by a few major players such as Lactalis [12], refuses to disclose its margin rates. The racket is also organized upstream, with a few large suppliers of plant protection products, fertilizers, seeds and agricultural equipment. These suppliers have recently raised their prices sharply, certainly for exogenous reasons such as the war in Ukraine, but also out of sheer greed.
While food prices have soared over the past two years, this windfall has not trickled down to farmers but most to pay for the higher input cost.
To survive, farmers are constantly on the receiving end of subsidies. Investment subsidies, income support from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) based on the number of hectares farmed or the size of the livestock, aid for converting to and maintaining organic farming, aid for maintaining hedgerows… There’s something for just about everything. But you have to be able to fill out a mountain of forms to benefit from them, and hope that the administration manages to process them in time. But years of austerity and increasingly complex procedures have rendered the bureaucracy incapable of performing its duties. In reality, the biggest farmers are often the only ones to benefit from subsidies. It’s easy to see why administrative buildings are particularly targeted by protesters.
At a time when the economic equation is already untenable for small farmers, a new wave of free trade is sweeping over them. After competition from Spain for fruit and vegetables, and from German and Polish pork producers, they now face competition from New Zealand, with which the European Union has just signed a free-trade agreement.[13] In the midst of an ecological emergency, importing sheep’s meat and milk from the other side of the planet was undoubtedly a priority. The EU is also finalizing steps to remove customs barriers with Mercosur, the large South American common market. Faced with the factory farms of Brazil and Argentina, which farm soybeans and beef over huge areas, it is clear that French agriculture, with the exception of the high-end sectors, will not be able to cope. [14] The fact that these countries use antibiotics, growth hormones, pesticides and all kinds of products banned in Europe is vaguely acknowledged by the European Commission, which points to “mirror clauses” in the agreement, but without any precision on the substance. Last but not least, the EU is steadily accelerating Ukraine’s accession process, whose agricultural products has invaded Central European markets and have already led to the ruin of Polish and Hungarian farmers. [15]
Are farmers really anti-environment?
And yet, while these reasons for anger are widely shared by farmers, they do not form the core of the FNSEA and Jeunes Agriculteurs’ demands. Instead, the two unions are focusing their opposition on measures aimed at transitioning the sector to more ecological modes of production. In particular, they denounced the increase in a tax on pesticides and a levy on water used for irrigation. Aimed at financing the government’s Water Plan and reducing pesticide spraying in order to preserve this increasingly scarce resource, these two taxes were abandoned in December. [16] The gradual end of the tax exemption on non-road diesel, the fuel used by farm machinery, was also denounced, although the FNSEA is in some difficulty on this front: in a deal with the government this summer, it accepted this increase in exchange for a reform of the taxation of agricultural capital gains, which benefits large farmers.[17]
In addition to taxes, the FNSEA and JA are particularly attacking new European environmental standards, such as the European “farm to fork” strategy and the “Green Deal”. The former aims to ensure that 25% of farmland is organic by 2030, while the latter has already been largely stripped of its substance. [18] For FNSEA boss, Arnaud Rousseau, [19] , this – albeit timid – transition to agro-ecology would in fact lead to “decreasing agriculture”, which would then be unable to meet France’s food needs. By stirring up this fear of the return of hunger, the FNSEA hopes to derail limited attempts to convert the sector to more sustainable modes of production. For the FNSEA, the solution to the productivity problems posed by soil depletion, climate change, the multiplication of epidemics and the biodiversity crisis lies solely in technical progress, through drones, digitization, mega-bins, robotization and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
The majority union’s blatant disregard for the environment is not, however, representative of the vision of all farmers. On the front line against the effects of global warming, the first victims of pesticides and witnesses to land depletion and water scarcity, many of them subscribe to the idea of a change of model. But while the transition to organic farming takes years and the loans to be repaid are often considerable, no transition is possible without substantial help from the public authorities. However, aid for the transition to and maintenance of organic farming is notoriously inadequate, and is rarely paid out on time. Not to mention the fact that the organic market is set to fall by 4.6% by 2022 [20], and to continue to fall in 2023. Excessively expensive – mainly due to supermarkets’ mark-ups – these products are increasingly shunned by consumers whose means have been eroded by inflation.
Beyond organic farming, calls for greater agro-ecology are not matched by sufficient resources. A case in point is the mobilization led by the Confédération Paysanne and CIVAM in Brittany last autumn for more funding dedicated to agro-ecological and climatic measures (MAEC) [21] , which encourage livestock farmers to dedicate a greater proportion of their farms to grassland, in order to preserve the environment. Many farmers would like to adopt practices that are more respectful of the environment – but also of animal welfare – but simply don’t have the means to do so.
The FNSEA, the farming world’s false ally
The FNSEA, and to a lesser extent the JA, prefer to reject this transition, instead of combining the necessary ecological shift in agriculture with the measures needed to make it a reality – protectionism and higher pay for farmers. This is hardly surprising: despite claiming to represent all farmers, the FNSEA only defends the biggest among them. The salaries of the union’s leaders, unveiled in 2020 by Mediapart [22], bear witness to their disconnection from farmers: the director general at the time was emerging at €13,400 gross per month, more than the Minister of Agriculture, while the former president, who only worked three days a week, earned in one month as much as an average farmer earns in a year!
Lactalis, the dominant player in the dairy industry, refuses to disclose its profit margins.
The personality of the current president of the syndicate [23] sums up the interests actually defended by the federation: a business school graduate, Arnaud Rousseau began his career in commodities trading, i.e. speculation… He then took over the family’s 700-hectare cereal farm, a perfect incarnation of productivist agriculture stuffed with CAP subsidies. Beyond his farm, Rousseau is also CEO of a methanization group, director of the Saipol group, France’s leading processor of seeds into oils, chairman of Sofiprotéol, a company offering credit to farmers, and of a dozen other companies. Above all, he is CEO of Avril, a huge industrial group that owns Puget and Lesieur oils, among others. By 2022, sales of this agrifood [24] and agrofuels behemoth had reached 9 billion euros, while net income had soared by 45% – A group from which the former FNSEA president, Xavier Beulin, was already a member between 2010 and 2017.
Boss of an agro-industrial group that makes its money on the backs of farmers, promoter of farmer indebtedness and former trader, Arnaud Rousseau has interests in almost every sector responsible for the death of French agriculture. All that was missing were the seed companies and farm equipment dealers, and that was that. No surprise, then, that the FNSEA is content to issue meagre statements against free-trade agreements without calling for mobilization to defeat them, or that it ardently defends a CAP that benefits only the biggest corporations. The same is true of the majority union’s defense of “mega-basins”: presented as a solution to widespread drought; these basins benefit the biggest farmers [25] who refuse to change their methods and take water away from the smallest to produce foodstuffs often destined for export.
What outlet for the movement?
Usually, the FNSEA’s and JA’s betrayals of their rank and file elicit little reaction from the latter. This time, however, it seems that their attempts to control the movement are not working. In Toulouse, a union representative inviting farmers to go home and let his union negotiate on their behalf was loudly booed. [26] In Haute-Saône, the blockade of a Lactalis factory with manure and garbage, rare enough in this type of movement to be highlighted, is an action that the FNSEA would probably never have supported. More generally, farmers in revolt generally prefer not to show their union membership – when they have one – and are very keen to avoid any political recupcussions [27].
France Insoumise [is a left-wing populist political party in France, launched in 2016 by Jean-Luc Mélenchon] proposed the introduction of a floor price on agricultural products on November 30, which was rejected by just 6 votes.
What exactly are the various political camps proposing? On the government side, the line is unclear and the record of the last seven years in power difficult to accept. However, it is likely that the Macronists will end up reaching an agreement with the FNSEA on emergency aid and the abolition of environmental rules, in the hope of calming the anger. If legislative changes are needed to implement them, this should pose no problems: in their statements [28], the Republicans, the government’s unofficial allies, are fully aligned with the FNSEA’s demands29.
The Rassemblement National (RN), on the other hand, is more critical of the majority union [30] , but takes up most of its arguments in substance. The only notable difference is the issue of free trade, which is strongly opposed by the far right. This brings it into line with Coordination Rurale [31], an agricultural union that has long argued in favour of “agricultural exceptionalism” in the context of globalization. While Marine Le Pen and her cohorts are obviously trying to recuperate the movement and directly target the European Union in their criticisms, with the aim of boosting their score in next June’s elections, they have virtually nothing to propose in terms of price regulation, CAP reform, farm incomes or the environment.
Will the left be able to convince them?
As for the left, it finds itself in more or less the same situation as the Confédération Paysanne, the embodiment of this political camp among agricultural unions. Although the farmers’ protests echo many of the warnings issued by the “Conf'” over the years (free-trade treaties, the folly of market liberalization and the end of production quotas, the unfairness of subsidies, the impossibility of greening agriculture without financial support, the adaptation of standards to the realities of small farms…), this does not necessarily lead to support for the union’s proposals. For the left, the challenge of this sequence is to repair its image with the farming world by breaking down the discourse around “agri-bashing” or the urban bobo vegetarian lecturer.
Recent interventions by left-wing MPs in the media and at the National Assembly give hope of breaking with this image. Insoumis MPs François Ruffin [32] , Mathilde Hignet [33] (a former farm worker) and Christophe Bex [34] , as well as ecologist MP Marie Pochon [35] (daughter of winegrowers), have clearly targeted the real adversaries of the agricultural world, namely retailers, agri-food industrialists, foreign factory farms and the FNSEA. Floor prices, margin controls, protectionism, review of subsidies to simplify them and support a more ecological model, review of criteria for public ordering in canteens to favour French agriculture… There’s no shortage of proposals. As a reminder, France Insoumise [is a left-wing populist political party in France, launched in 2016 by Jean-Luc Mélenchon]proposed the introduction of a floor price for agricultural products [36] on November 30, which was rejected by just 6 votes. In the longer term, the introduction of a Social Security system for food [37] – which is gradually gaining ground on the left, with local experiments multiplying – could provide a new framework for truly taking agriculture out of the market.
Admittedly, this horizon may seem remote. Of course, it is likely that the current movement will eventually subside, between the fatigue of those mobilized on the roads in the middle of winter, the need to keep farms running to repay loans, and the probable agreement between the FNSEA, the JA and the government to calm the crowd. The fact that this social movement remains very sector-based for the time being does not argue in favour of its longevity. However, it has already made it possible to reopen fundamental debates on our food supply, globalization, work and the highly unequal distribution of value. In so doing, it has broken the liberal framework in which the FNSEA wants to confine all political thought in the world of agriculture. This is already a major victory.
This article was originally published on the Le Vent Se Lève.38 website. WILLIAM BOUCHARDON IS LVSL’S ECONOMICS EDITOR. HE HAS A DEGREE IN POLITICAL SCIENCE FROM THE IEP IN GRENOBLE.
NOTES:
1. https://www.bfmtv.com/societe/on-est-prets-a-monter-a-paris-et-paralyser-la-capitale-jerome-bayle-figure-de-la-contestation-des-agriculteurs-temoigne_VN-202401220441.html
2. https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/agriculture-peche/colere-des-agriculteurs-les-syndicats-appellent-a-un-blocus-de-paris-ce-vendredi-1589249
3. https://www.lesechos.fr/monde/europe/le-ras-le-bol-des-agriculteurs-allemands-met-le-gouvernement-sous-pression-2046407
4. https://lvsl.fr/colere-plebeienne-contre-lecologie-des-classes-superieures-le-cas-hollandais/
5. https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/occitanie/aude/carcassonne/une-explosion-souffle-le-batiment-de-la-direction-de-l-environnement-a-carcassonne-le-sigle-du-cav-retrouve-sur-un-mur-2909633.html
6. https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/crise/blocus-des-agriculteurs/colere-des-agriculteurs-face-aux-manifestations-gerald-darmanin-demande-aux-prefets-de-la-moderation-et-l-intervention-des-forces-de-l-ordre-en-dernier-recours_6324048.html
7. https://harris-interactive.fr/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/01/Rapport-Toluna-Harris-Observatoire-de-la-mobilisation-des-agriculteurs-23012024.pdf
8. https://www.frustrationmagazine.fr/agriculteurs-fnsea/
9. https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/emploi/carriere/vie-professionnelle/retraite/retraites-les-agriculteurs-ne-se-joindront-pas-au-mouvement-du-5-decembre_3728985.html
10. https://reporterre.net/Demeter-la-cellule-de-la-gendarmerie-qui-surveille-les-opposants-a-l-agriculture
11. https://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-finance/industrie/agroalimentaire-biens-de-consommation-luxe/prix-alimentaires-les-marges-des-industriels-et-des-distributeurs-de-nouveau-sur-la-sellette-984450.html
12. https://twitter.com/AnonymeCitoyen/status/1749900499648647331
13. https://reporterre.net/L-Europe-choisit-le-libre-echange-avec-la-Nouvelle-Zelande-au-detriment-du-climat
14. https://www.publicsenat.fr/actualites/economie/accord-commercial-entre-lunion-europeenne-et-le-mercosur-a-lunanimite-le-senat-denonce-un-rouleau-compresseur-agricole
15. https://lvsl.fr/nouvel-elargissement-de-lue-une-folie-economique-et-politique/
16. https://www.publicsenat.fr/actualites/environnement/budget-2024-le-gouvernement-renonce-a-la-hausse-des-taxes-sur-les-pesticides-et-lirrigation-en-agriculture
17. https://www.humanite.fr/politique/agriculture-intensive/les-grands-cerealiers-ne-manifestent-pas-ils-sont-au-ski-pourquoi-la-mobilisation-des-agriculteurs-est-concentree-dans-le-sud-ouest
18. https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2024/01/20/l-union-europeenne-s-inquiete-des-attaques-des-agriculteurs-contre-le-green-deal_6211937_3234.html
19. https://www.publicsenat.fr/actualites/politique/agriculteurs-en-colere-quelles-sont-leurs-revendications
20. https://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-finance/transitions-ecologiques/bio-la-filiere-au-pied-du-mur-avec-la-chute-des-ventes-964420.html
21. https://www.latribune.fr/regions/bretagne/agro-ecologie-pourquoi-les-aides-environnementales-cristallisent-la-grogne-des-exploitants-bretons-984963.html
22. https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/190220/la-fnsea-le-train-de-vie-hors-sol-des-dirigeants
23. https://www.humanite.fr/social-et-economie/agriculteurs/a-la-tete-de-la-fnsea-qui-est-arnaud-rousseau-le-businessman-qui-voulait-passer-pour-un-paysan
24. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avril_(entreprise)
25. https://reporterre.net/Megabassines-les-raisons-de-la-colere#:~:
26.https://twitter.com/LucAuffret/status/1747280599692329408?t=zyvB7Awq78O7i5rA855jpw&s=19
27. https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2024/01/24/agriculteurs-en-colere-en-bretagne-la-reprise-en-main-du-mouvement-par-la-fnsea-suscite-des-critiques_6212666_3234.html
28. https://www.bfmtv.com/politique/laurent-duplomb-lr-les-agriculteurs-n-acceptent-plus-cette-folie-administrative-qui-tue-les-paysans-petit-a-petit_VN-202401240578.html
29. https://www.publicsenat.fr/actualites/parlementaire/colere-des-agriculteurs-les-lr-mettent-sur-la-table-une-nouvelle-proposition-de-loi-pour-arreter-demmerder-les-paysans
30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZSIxTqnOgk
31. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordination_rurale
32.https://www.youtube.com/watch?
33. https://www.bfmtv.com/politique/sans-mesure-ambitieuse-nos-campagnes-risquent-de-finir-aussi-vides-que-la-loi-que-nous-attendons-depuis-un-an-assure-mathilde-hignet-lfi_VN-202401230613.html
34. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIp8O5TFZyQ&ab_channel=ChristopheBex
35.https://twitter.com/MariePochon/status/1749812567621632045?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
36https://twitter.com/jlmelenchon/status/
37. https://lvsl.fr/penser-lapres-crise-pour-une-securite-sociale-de-lalimentation/
38. https://lvsl.fr/manifestations-des-agriculteurs-la-fnsea-depassee/
