Cattle farming "has a future" in France, says Elisabeth Borne

Livestock "has a future" in France despite climate change, Elisabeth Borne said Tuesday after a report by the Court of Auditors that recommends reducing the cattle herd and hurts breeders. "We have a model of cattle farming that we can be proud of, a model of cattle farming that I want to affirm has a future in our country," the prime minister said during the session of questions to the government at the National Assembly.

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Yes, cattle farming will have to play its full part in the agricultural transition" and "will have to evolve to find a solid and sustainable economic model", but "no, it will not be the adjustment variable", continued the head of government. "To be successful, the ecological and agricultural transition must be done with the French with the breeders and not against them," she said.

" READ ALSO Cattle breeding: the Court of Auditors recommends "a significant reduction in livestock"

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Livestock can have beneficial effects for our environment," said the Prime Minister, arguing that "every year grasslands store 8 million tons of CO2" and that livestock "allows the construction of a network of hedgerows and agroecological infrastructure useful especially for the soil". "So I want to give farmers visibility on the challenges ahead and build with them an economically and environmentally sustainable future," she insisted.

The breeders had denounced the recommendations of the Court of Auditors as an "attack" and a "provocation", demanding from the government "a rescue plan" and a drastic reduction in imports, which currently represent 25% of the beef consumed in France. According to the Court of Auditors' report published on 22nd May the government should "define and make public a strategy to reduce" the number of cows raised in France to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Carbon sequestration by grasslands where animals graze is "far from offsetting emissions" from livestock, says the institution. Europe's largest beef producer and second largest dairy herd behind Germany, the France has around 17 million head of cattle. However, cattle farming accounts for 11.8% of the country's emissions. Reducing the impact of livestock and nitrogen fertilizers are among the avenues considered by the government to reduce greenhouse gases.