Farmers feel as a "real injury" the recommendation of the Court of Auditors to "define a strategy of reduction" of the cattle herd to reduce the carbon footprint of the France, said Tuesday to AFP the president of the agricultural union FNSEA. "We are particularly annoyed by the trial that is made to French breeding," says Arnaud Rousseau.
On Monday, while Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne presented the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to be achieved in all sectors by 2030, the Court of Auditors recommended in a report to "define and make public a strategy for reduction" of the cattle herd to meet the climate commitments of the France. "Reading that your activity must cease or largely decrease, it is very complicated for breeders" already less and less numerous, says Arnaud Rousseau, ensuring that this measure was "experienced as a real injury".
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? 100g of vegetable protein generates 60 to 90% less greenhouse gases than 100g of animal protein." The breeders have, according to the president of the FNSEA, "a feeling of abandonment (...) stigmatization" on the altar of decarbonization.
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Decrease in production
Cattle farming accounts for 11.8% of France emissions. Cows, when digesting, naturally produce methane, a gas with very warming power. 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.
