"France must produce more to eat better," says the Minister of Agriculture

"France must produce more to eat better," said Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard on Sunday, delivering her vision of food sovereignty, conceived as a "rearmament" in a world shaken by conflicts. The tone is firm, the smile conquering: six months after her arrival in government, the minister from the ranks of the traditional French right has planted her flags by inaugurating the ministry's stand at the Salon de l'agriculture.

"In this moment of great upheaval in the international order (...), France must assert its agricultural sovereignty as a sovereign issue and rearm its food power," she declared, calling for "general mobilization . " "France must produce more to eat better. Produce more to reclaim the plates of the French (...), import less and guarantee the production standards that we demand from our farmers," she declared, drawing applause from the audience, largely composed of representatives from the agricultural world. "Produce more to remain an exporting power and play in the big leagues," she continued, unfolding a vision of agriculture widely denounced on the left and by environmental defenders who are worried about "major regressions" in the protection of living things and soils.

The day before, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron had pledged to do everything "to protect this French and European food sovereignty" in an unstable world where Beijing, Trump or Putin can shake French wines, cognacs, cheeses or wheat. "Tomorrow, nothing tells us that food will not become a weapon and, therefore, our responsibility is to produce on our soil what allows us to feed ourselves" , declared the Head of State.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, which revealed the weaknesses of an agricultural Europe dependent on Russian gas for its fertilizers and weakened by competition from Black Sea wheat, the French executive's discourse on food sovereignty has changed. Far from 2017, when Emmanuel Macron promised to ban the herbicide glyphosate and then praised an "upgrade" of agricultural production, the French executive now defends a vision of production widely shared by the leading agricultural union FNSEA: fewer constraints, "means of production" - in particular pesticides and water - and an effective fight against competition from Latin America (Mercosur). "For a strong agriculture, we need #income, #simplification, dignity and to protect ourselves from unfair competition" , reacted Arnaud Rousseau, the head of the FNSEA on X.

In Annie Genevard's speech, not once is there any mention of "agroecological transition" - presented as a government priority until last year. On the contrary, the minister wants to "turn her back on the supporters of degrowth" and vigorously castigates the "ideologues" who maintain "the fantasy of a productivist agricultural France" . "We often invoke the environmental debt that we could leave to our children. But I don't want to leave them a food debt either" , she further stated. Praising her record, she recalled the adoption completed or in progress of agricultural laws making life easier for producers, the implementation of nearly "half a billion in tax reliefs" , emergency aid measures or loans guaranteed by the State up to 70%.

"We have a proactive and caring minister. Loans guaranteed for a period of up to 12 years are a real breath of fresh air for farmers in crisis, it's very concrete," Luc Smessaert, a farmer in Oise and one of the vice-presidents of the FNSEA, told AFP. The rival Rural Coordination was equally satisfied: its general secretary Christian Convers praised "a very good speech," stating that his union, which is both liberal and sovereignist, recognized itself "in many of the remarks" made by the minister.

On the contrary, the Confédération paysanne, the third agricultural union that advocates a "real agroecological transition" , has decided to boycott the minister's speech on Sunday as well as all the protocol events of the Salon. The budget of the Organic Agency once threatened, the possible reintroduction of neonicotinoid insecticides - very toxic for pollinators - and "still no measures" to guarantee farmers minimum prices according to their costs: "all this is extremely shocking" , said the national spokesperson Laurence Marandola, who nevertheless intends to continue working with the government but without appearing at its side.