Michèle walked from the Gonesse triangle to reach the center of Paris. At 75, she does not hesitate to travel the 20 km separating the capital from the city of Val-d'Oise to protest against the disappearance of agricultural land in Île-de-France. “The elected officials all want to urbanize, because, supposedly, it creates jobs. But employment without food is not very useful! She says. Because as Virginie, who came on foot from Saclay, reminds us, “Paris has three days of food autonomy. At the slightest blockage of traffic, confinement, it's panic! ". It is part of the collective “No to line 18”, an overhead metro line which must serve the Saclay plateau. Once built, it will have become "an insurmountable barrier for animals, pedestrians and farmers on the plateau",she assures.
Four processions left the day before, on foot or by bicycle, from Saclay, Gonesse, Thoiry and Val Bréon. The few hundred demonstrators gathered on Sunday noon in front of the Paris City Hall. Despite different local contexts according to the municipalities, all intend to fight against the artificialization of soils, and for the preservation of agricultural land.
“It's the same spirit everywhere,” explains Manon, a student at AgroParisTech, whose campus was recently sold to real estate developer Altarea Cogedim.
“The State does its business with real estate developers, it concrete, with total contempt for the local population, elected officials, the environment.
It's the same thing in Saclay, Gonesse, Grignon ”asserts the demonstrator.
In recent years, around 1,500 hectares of agricultural land have been transformed into urban areas each year, estimates the Ile-de-France chamber of agriculture.
