Hundreds of farmers erect symbolic walls in front of ANSES and INRAE

The mobilization of farmers targeting public establishments continues on Thursday, in front of the headquarters of Anses and Inrae in the Paris region, and in front of the Alpes-Maritimes prefecture in Nice, after actions mainly concentrated in rural areas in the latter days.

Around a hundred farmers peacefully erected a cardboard wall on Thursday to symbolically block the entrance to the Anses health agency in Maisons-Alfort (Val-de-Marne), after having carried out a similar action at dawn, but with concrete blocks, in Paris, in front of Inrae, the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment.

In the Alpes-Maritimes, farmers dumped manure and sheep’s wool in front of the gates of the Nice prefecture to show their anger, according to the local press.

The Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard, condemned “with the greatest firmness any attack on people and property, which harms the legitimate demands of farmers”in a statement to AFP.

“only constraints”

Ile-de-France farmers, led by the majority union alliance FNSEA/Jeunes Agriculteurs, placed empty cardboard boxes in front of ANSES headquarters to encourage the agency “to move to Brussels, so that she stops contradicting European regulations”Cyrille Milard, president of the FNSEA branch in Seine-et-Marne, told AFP.

“Macron, when will the actions take place? »could we read on a banner in capital letters.

At dawn, the same demonstrators had expressed their “fed up” in front of Inrae, in the seventh arrondissement of the capital.

In theory, “institutes like INRAE ​​can give us the means to fulfill our role as producers”or “this is no longer the case. For years, it is degrowth that has been organized”launched Pascal Verrièle, deputy secretary of the FDSEA Seine-et-Marne, with a loudspeaker.

“We finance a national institute at a billion euros per year which only brings us constraints”added Donatien Moyson, co-president of Jeunes Agriculteurs Ile-de-France Ouest, to AFP. “We are here to fight against obstacles to agriculture”he said.

Access to the front door of the INRAE ​​building was not entirely blocked, with a gap between the concrete block wall and the entrance to the building.

Tagged in orange on the wall about two meters high, we can read « INRA escrolos »while a banner displays: “For sale, no longer useful – Lease to be transferred – Savings: €1.1 billion”.

No tractors, no machines: farmers, of all ages, came by car and public transport to demonstrate.

Gathered very early, before 6 a.m., they were first blocked and surrounded by the police, then, calmly, laid concrete blocks in front of INRAE ​​to erect the wall. Around 7:30 a.m., they began to disperse.

public buildings covered

“We have restrictions on the use of certain products without effective alternative solutions, which leads to production losses”testified Rémi Pierrard, a beet and cereal producer based near Provins (Seine-et-Marne), member of the Young Farmers (JA) union.

“We were banned from an insecticide which protected the beet at the beginning of its growth against an aphid. Now we are forced to treat with a sprayer, a treatment that is much less effective and less respectful of auxiliary fauna, with productivity losses of up to 50% per year.he added.

On Wednesday, 28 actions took place in 24 departments, authorities recorded, involving 1,600 people and 479 agricultural machines, and targeting “more public buildings”.

The FNSEA-JA alliance had placed its first week of mobilization under the sign of opposition to the proposed free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay). But, for its second week of coordinated actions, it is particularly targeting what it considers to be «obstacles» at the work of farmers: prefectures, water agencies or offices of the French Biodiversity Office (OFB).