French farmers at odds over CAP reforms

Date: 11/07/02

By Simon Coss in Saint Mayeux

FRANCE'S farmers fall into two mutually hostile camps when it comes to the question of reforming the EU's Common Agricultural Policy.

About the only thing the two agree on is that the plan for overhauling the Union's farm rules unveiled by Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler yesterday (10 July), would be a disaster.

On the one hand is France's largest agricultural lobby, the Fédération Nationale des Syndicats d'Exploitants Agricoles (FNSEA), which represents the majority of farmers owning large or medium-sized farms; critics say it is little more than a mouthpiece for the multi-billion euro agri-food sector.

The other face of French farming is represented by the smaller Confédération Paysanne (CP), made up of small-time farmers who favour non-intensive agriculture.

Its most famous member is José Bové, the anti-world-trade campaigner currently serving a three-month sentence for 'dismantling' a McDonalds restaurant.

European Voice talked to another CP member, René Louail, who runs a small farm in the Breton village of Saint Mayeux. He raises pigs, sheep and chickens and refuses to use intensive farming methods. But he complains that far from encouraging farmers like him, the CAP penalises producers who favour quality over quantity.

'The subsidies are extremely badly shared out,' he complains. 'On the one hand you have huge farms that get millions of euros a year and on the other you have small-time farmers for whom the CAP is a real disaster,' he adds.

Louail concedes that successive attempts to reform the CAP have tried to address the problem, but insists that the system still encourages over-production.

Gilles Guillomon is a sheep and goat farmer based in Domloup, near Rennes. As a local FNSEA activist, he disagrees fundamentally with Louail.

'It may be true that a very small number of cereal farmers receive huge subsidies, but that is no reason to penalise everyone,' he says, adding that some farmers with very modest incomes have large farms. He also takes issue with Louail's opposition to intensive farming methods, in particular the allegation that they can cause serious water pollution through the disposal of animal excrement.

'If the excrement is disposed of properly, intensive farms actually cause less pollution than non-intensive ones,' he says. 'A cow that produces 1,000 litres of milk does not pollute as much as two animals that produce 500 litres each.'

The two farmers also disagree on the thorny issue of how farmers from the applicant states should be integrated into the CAP. Louail argues that most of the candidate countries will not be ready to join the Union as early as 2004. 'Only around 5% of Polish farmers could cope with being integrated into the EU's common market today,' he insists.

But when the applicants do join, Louail says he would be ready to see the share of money he receives from the CAP reduced to help his central and eastern European colleagues. Guillomon takes a different line. Although happy for new entrants to receive equal subsides, he does not want his handouts cut.

'If we cut revenues in France, things will explode and many people will lose their jobs,' he argues, adding that in his view the decision to try to push ahead with enlargement without increasing the EU budget in real terms was a mistake.

But while the two farmers may disagree with each other they are even more at odds with Fischler's plans. And when France's farmers are not happy, they usually make sure people know about it.

Visitors to France this summer should be in for an interesting time.

Feature on the reaction of French farmers to the proposed reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy, unveiled by Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler on 10 July 2002.

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/agriculture/mtr/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/comm/agriculture/capreform/index_en.htm

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