It is a recommendation that ulcerates the French agricultural world. The French government should "define and make public a strategy to reduce" the number of cows raised in France to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said the Court of Auditors in a report published on Monday.
The report is published on the same day that Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne unveiled a government action plan assessing greenhouse gas reductions by major sector of the economy, and quantifying the effort for agriculture with a priority reduction in the impact of livestock and nitrogen fertilizers.
The France, Europe's largest beef producer and second largest dairy herd behind Germany, has about 17 million head of cattle. Cattle farming accounts for 11.8% of the country's emissions. "The balance sheet of cattle farming for the climate is unfavorable," writes the Court of Auditors in a report on public support for cattle farmers.
The Court specifies that carbon sequestration by grasslands where animals graze is "far from offsetting emissions" from livestock. The balance sheet of livestock farming is mainly weighed down by methane emissions: the production of this gas with its very warming power - from the digestion of ruminants and their droppings - represents 45% of French agricultural emissions.
Do not eat more than 500 g per week
"Compliance with the France's commitments to reduce methane emissions (...) necessarily calls for a significant reduction in livestock", says the institution, which asks the Ministry of Agriculture to "define and make public" a strategy in this area.
The Court notes that the ministry has communicated to it "its hypotheses on the evolution of the cattle herd" which could decline to about 15 million head in 2035 and 13.5 million in 2050. The decline in livestock numbers has begun (-10% in six years). But "this decrease remains suffered and is not subject to real steering by the State, to the detriment of operators," observes the Court.
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For the institution, the decline in livestock would not undermine the "sovereignty" of the France in terms of red meat provided that consumers follow the recommendations of the health authorities not to eat more than 500 g per week (threshold currently exceeded by 28% of adults).
At the same time, it recommends that the ministry "better support the most disadvantaged breeders" so that they can "reorient themselves towards other production systems or change their professional orientation". More broadly, it considers that the current support schemes for cattle farmers are "very expensive" (€4.3 billion in 2019).
Injured and annoyed farmers
The breeders feel like a "real wound", said Tuesday to AFP the president of the agricultural union FNSEA. "We are particularly annoyed by the trial that is being made against French breeding," says Arnaud Rousseau. Reading that your activity must cease or greatly decrease, it is very complicated for breeders. " This measure is "experienced as a real wound".
He also accuses Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire of a "devastating tweet" on May 17, during a factory visit to the company Happyvore, which markets meat substitutes. The minister wrote: "Did you know? 100 g of vegetable protein generates 60 to 90% less greenhouse gases than 100 g of animal protein. »
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According to the president of the FNSEA, breeders have "a feeling of abandonment (...) stigmatization" on the altar of decarbonization. The majority union FNSEA defends a "breeding correlated to the market, consumption needs and at this stage we have little or no decline". At the same time, domestic red meat production has already fallen due to shutdowns (-10% of cash and meat cows in six years), and imports are increasing.
For Arnaud Rousseau, French livestock can reduce its emissions through innovation - additives in cows' rations promise to reduce methane production - and without the need to push farmers to stop. The "age pyramid" naturally presages a smaller number of breeders and therefore head of cattle. He also points out that grasslands grazed by cows capture carbon. But "no one will keep meadows if we do not have cows to put on them," he warns.