There is nothing new in the ruling on MON 810 handed down by France’s senior committee on biotechnology  [Haut Conseil des Biotechnologies].  The message is such that the Government, only too ready to resort to the precautionary principle, can continue to maintain that its decision to suspend authorisation for growing BT maize is legitimate.

As part of the review of the draft Finance legislation amendment for 2009 being finalised today, a vote was passed excluding biofuel from the scope of the Carbon Tax.

ORAMA, the union of professional associations representing French grain and oil and protein seed producers, wishes to express its total support for the young farmers from Greater Paris and surrounding regions who held a surprise demonstration early this morning in front of the presidential Elysée Palace.

After 2008 which saw a 34% drop in the average income of farmers specialising in grain and oil and protein seed crops, there will now be a 51% drop for 2009 according to data released today by the Ministry of Agriculture.

With developments and changes occurring with GAEC (Good Agricultural & Environmental Conditions) and the implementation of the Nitrates Directive, grain, oilseed and protein seed producers have now spent months having to deal with measures quite divorced from any real conditions of climate, agronomy, the economy and ecology. Their patience has been tested to its limits, not only with this but also with the issue of access to inputs needed for them to be a competitive force on the market.

At the initiative of the AGPM (General Association of Maize Growers), the entire maize industry rallied to institute compensation for maize growers in France suffering damage caused by the parasite Diabrotica Virgifera Virgifera.

Initial feedback from accounting management centres and forecasts on the basis of FADN data for 2007 suggest that 2009 income figures (before tax and before deductions for social charges) for grain and oil & protein seed growers will drop by more than 80%.  For an average-size farm in this sector (115 hectares) it will be, at the very best, only 5000 euros!

On October 24, 2009, at a Saturday morning sitting of the lower house of the French Parliament, a ruling was made endorsing a proposal by the Government:
- to levy a carbon tax on biofuels
- and to increase taxation on bioethanol and biodiesel, which means higher taxation for bioethanol than for gasoline!
 
It should be noted that a carbon tax on biofuels breaches European regulations;  biofuels are 100% renewable energy, so the carbon content is calculated as zero, as is explicitly stated in the renewable energy directive adopted by the European Union in December 2008 under the French presidency!
 
The AGPB, AGPM, CGB and FOP are outraged by these decisions that will penalise 100% renewable energy which, to date, is the only large-scale solution immediately available to help reduce CO2 emissions from motor transport.
 
It is only a few weeks till the Copenhagen Summit and it is just a short time since the publication of the findings of the report conducted by the French Environment & Energy Management Agency, ADEME, on life cycle analyses of first generation biofuels as used in France, a report which noted the excellent energy and environmental balance audited.  These decisions are totally unjustifiable and unreasonable and are contrary to the Government’s pro-active policy for the environment.
 
The AGPB, AGPM, CGB and FOP are calling on the Head of State to act so that these conflicting and unfounded decisions do not invalidate commitments already given, including the one on carbon tax exemptions for all types of renewable energy and commitments to help develop biofuel in France.
 
The AGPB, AGPM, CGB and FOP are now waiting for prompt action implementing relevant corrective measures.
 
The biofuel sector makes key contributions to both agriculture and the fight against global warming.  It is also an important factor helping revive the economy through green growth, with investments made, mostly by farmers, in this new sector.
 
France, as the leading biofuel producer in the European Union is duty bound to continue with this development in order to assert its leadership in the EU.
 
Press Contacts     FOP-Florence Doat-Matrot 01.40.69.48.23 f.doat-matrot@prolea.com
                            AGPB - Pascal Hurbault 01.44.31.16.25 phurbault@agpb.fr
                            CGB - Carine Abecassis 01.44.69.41.36 cabecassis@cgb-france.fr
                            AGPM - Anne Kettaneh 01.44.31.10.96 anne.kettaneh@agpm.com

There were demonstrations across France:  Toulouse, Mont-de-Marsan, Poitiers, Orléans, Rouen, Lille, Metz, Colmar, Dijon, Bourg-en- Bresse, Valence, Chalons-en-Champagne, Amiens, Beauvais, Compiègne, Melun, Fontainebleau and more.  There was the high-profile action in Paris outside Fouquet’s restaurant on the Champs-Elysées, plus field crop farmers out in large numbers, demonstrating in regional capitals and other cities around France. 

The French Minister of Agriculture is travelling to the United States to learn about the American dairy policy.  ORAMA would strongly urge him to extend the scope of his investigation to include the American policy on income regulation as applied to field crops faced with market and weather contingencies.

French grain producers, via the associations representing their sectors (AGPB, AGPM and Coop de France-Métiers du Grain), have always aimed at organising their market outlets rather than letting production be ruled by market contingencies.  For this was how they became founding partners in the bioethanol industry which accounts for 2.3% of grain harvested in France and is helping to reduce the country’s energy dependency and greenhouse gas emissions.

At the press conference held in Paris yesterday, European maize producers confirmed the spread of diabrotica.  The maize pest Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, also known as the Western corn rootworm, originally came from America.  The CEPM has called for European regulations to be changed and for access to be granted to production facilities that are available so as to safeguard the future of the different maize production sectors in Europe.

Now that the Government has included agriculture in the scope of the carbon tax, field crop producers are confronted with serious risks threatening their competitive standing and the economy of their business.

The large number of diabrotica outbreaks in maize-growing areas in the regions of Alsace and Rhone-Alps has led to an “ideological” approach backed by organisations, in particular environmental organisations, making statements that are untrue and even spreadingmisinformation.

ORAMA applauds the appointment of Mr. Bruno Le Maire to the Ministry of Agriculture which has been extended to include “Food.” The new Minister has international experience, including as Secretary of State for European Affairs, which will be a great asset for key meetings on agriculture in the future, with the resumption of WTO negotiations, the establishment of the new European budgetary framework and the reform of the CAP post-2013 – all strategic points of critical importance for the future of the grain and oil and protein seed sectors.

The European Union research programme named Co-Extra recommends containment (or “confinement”) in GM-dedicated areas. This scenario is unacceptable and is an infringement of the farmer’s freedom of choice.

The crisis that has hit dairy producers is another case highlighting the danger of the trend to deregulation which, over recent years, has been the European Union approach to the management of agricultural markets.  If it’s not consumers who have to carry the burden of hefty increases in food prices that are difficult to bring down, then it’s farmers who are hit by absurd and dangerous cuts in production prices.
 
The field crop sector has been faced with such anomalies ever since grain intervention was dismantled under the CAP Health Check;  speaking through ORAMA, the sector wishes to express its support to the dairy sector, endorsing the appeal for a prompt return by EU authorities to more realistic agricultural policy options.

Contact : Pascal HURBAULT - 01 44 31 16 25

ORAMA applauds the establishment of France’s high level council on biotechnology [Haut conseil des biotechnologies], officially announced on April 22.  It will be chaired by a person unanimously accepted by the scientific community and whose independence is beyond doubt.

Many delegates from a number of regions attending the FNSEA congress drew attention to the insecurity that will be the plight of field crop farms because of choices made by the government for the implementation of the CAP Health Check.

Twelve local (département) federations of agricultural workers’ unions (from the regions of Centre, Champagne-Ardenne, Greater Paris, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Upper Normandy and Picardy) called on their members to demonstrate in Paris on March 25, in protest against the CAP Health Check-related decisions announced by the French Government on February 23 and which affect grain and oil/protein seed producers.  A number of awareness-raising and protest events had already been held in France over the previous month, expressing opposition to the harsh and arbitrary nature of the decisions.

The Board of Directors of the French General Association of Maize Growers (AGPM*) met on Wednesday, February 25, 2009, and voted to elect the President and members of the Bureau.
Christophe Terrain was re-elected President of AGPM, the position he has held since 1998.  He is a farmer (with an “EARL” limited liability farm) in the Gers region;  he has 68 hectares with grain maize, seed maize, pig-farming and free-range laying hens.  Christophe Terrain is also President of VIVADOUR Cooperative, Vice-President of ORAMA, a Board Member of FNSEA and President of ARVALIS Plant Institute.

Extraits du discours de Monsieur le Président de la République le 19 février dans le Maine-et-Loire :
 
« L’agriculture, un secteur stratégique pour notre économie. »
«  L’Europe ne peut renoncer à défendre son agriculture de production. »
« On ne peut plus continuer à laisser nos entreprises agricoles souffrir d’un dumping environnemental, social, fiscal, monétaire. »
« La seule réponse à cette crise alimentaire mondiale est de doubler la production d’ici à 2050. »
«  Créer les conditions d’une agriculture française encore plus fortement exportatrice. »
« Nous plaçons la recherche et l’innovation au cœur de notre stratégie agricole. »
… préférence communautaire, gestion des marchés dotée d’outils d’intervention et de gestion des risques, organisation de filières structurées, …

The French Minister of Agriculture appears to be confirming his intentions to have part of the aid currently earmarked for field crop growers reallocated to other farming sectors, doing so as part of the French implementation of the CAP Health Check.  This means bolstering the income of some players and placing others in a difficult situation.  Is there any other area of agriculture where similar practices can be seen?

Any “serious doubts” were removed a long time ago, and the latest report by the French food  safety agency (AFSSA), published in the Figaro newspaper today, has provided further clarification of the GMO issue.

The Minister of Agriculture is about to make a decision, as authorised under the terms of the CAP Health Check, choosing the level and extent of resources in the allocation of European aid for French farms, dividing aid between field crops and other farming sectors in France.