On January 14th, the French farmers' union Confédération Paysanne defaced the stand of the French agricultural and fisheries authority FranceAgriMer at the International Exhibition for Plant Production Techniques (SIVAL) in Angers with slogans such as “FranceAgriMer killed me” and numerous handprints made from red wine yeast. The vandalism was part of the union's protest against what it considers to be the agency's misguided grubbing-up policy. FranceAgriMer issued a press release strongly condemning the damage to its stand.
According to the Confédération Paysanne, around 70 winegrowers and farmers from all over France gathered in front of the FranceAgriMer stand on January 14th to denounce their recent grubbing-up plan, which they claim is leading to the "mass liquidation of wine-growing businesses" instead of paving the way for a coherent restructuring of French vineyards. The red handprints made from wine yeast, with which the delegation ‘decorated’ the agency's stand, were intended to symbolically commemorate the 1,300 winegrowers who, according to the farmers' union, would be leaving the sector due to the grubbing-up subsidies introduced by FranceAgriMer this autumn.
FranceAgriMer accused of „destroying farmers"
"In the eyes of the Confédération Paysanne," the French government and AgriMer, in the wake of financial markets and industrial companies, are literally continuing "a policy of destroying farmers." Instead, the association called for prioritizing productive areas so that they could be more easily rededicated to other products for human and animal consumption.
FranceAgriMer recalled, in return, that the grubbing-up plan was created after several months of close consultation between public authorities and the wine industry and that the reduction in production area must be understood "as the first element of a structural response to the crisis" from which the French wine industry is suffering. The agency will continue "to work for coordination between the authorities and the sectors to develop measures that are collectively and jointly decided by professionals and the state to ensure the sustainability of the agricultural sectors." Moreover, FranceAgriMer reserves the right to take legal action following this damage. SP