FDSEA congress: we explain why Tarn-et-Garonne farmers are in a bad mood

The majority agricultural union in the department, the FDSEA brings together 500 active and retired farmer members. Its annual congress took place on Tuesday 23 May in Montauban, in the presence of Vincent Roberti, prefect of Tarn-et-Garonne and the elected representatives of Montauban. Damien Garrigues, arborist in Montauban, and new president of the department, surrounded by his vice-president Jean-Philippe Viguié, farmer in Lacapelle-Livron and his general secretaries Francis Ambrogio, cereal grower in Lavit-de-Lomagne and Jacques Bes, farmer in Caylus, welcomed 150 people in the town hall of Fau.
The essential theme of the evening being the harassment of which the profession is the victim, the farmers were able to express themselves during a dinner debate on the reality of their daily life.

We can no longer grow the crops we want the way we want. Satellite images will be used every four days to monitor our plots and check the consistency between our CAP declarations and our crops!

Marie-Emmanuelle Thomsen, director of the FDSEA, recalls that “the department currently has just over 4,000 farms, a third of which are livestock, a third field crops, a third fruit. But the number of farmers is decreasing every year because young people are less attracted to the profession.

And the director goes around the “many hot topics” discussed during this congress, “in particular the future obligations of the 2023 CAP that are being put in place this year and will complicate things at an administrative level and add new constraints. We can no longer grow the crops we want the way we want. Satellite images will be used every four days to monitor our plots and check the consistency between our CAP declarations and our crops! People also need to understand that farmers need to be left alone. Today we are the most controlled profession in France”.

Marie-Emmanuelle Thomsen also mentions arboriculture, where “the situation is critical this year. The apple doesn’t sell well at all, the quality isn’t there due to the climate being too hot and not enough water”.

When asked about the latest recommendation to reduce the cattle herd by the Court of Auditors: “Even here we are stigmatized, we pollute too much. Traffic jams on long weekends don’t pollute, but the farmer is always targeted. Meat prices are at their lowest, farmers are decapitalising and now we don’t have enough cows in France and we import them.”
Morale is not at the rendezvous, remember the excess mortality of 30% by suicide in the agricultural world. The only good news, the rains of the last few days!