Document type : Article published in Public Sénat
Authors : Jules Fresard
Preview: The Bill tabled in April by the ecologist party senator from Paris to establish in law a form of "ethical livestock farming", has been rejected in its entirety by the Senate's Economic Affairs Committee, citing in particular the additional costs that its adoption would generate.
"Given the current political situation, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get a law through" says Esther Benbassa, a senator from the ecologist party, who is the author of a bill "for ethical, socially fair and animal welfare-friendly livestock farming", which has just been rejected in its entirety by the French Senate's Economic Affairs Committee on Wednesday 12 May.
Based on a report by Marie-Christine Chauvin, a French senator from the Jura region,who chairs the Senate's Livestock study group, this decision by the committee does not hold out much hope for the future of the Bill, which will be debated in the session of 26 May, despite the fact that it was put forward as a cross-party initiative and was signed by six different political groups, ranging from ecologists to centrists.
A proposal "cut to the bone"
Esther Benbassa regrets the decision all the more because, she says, her bill had been "cut to the bone, containing just four articles, and squeezed into the two-hour parliamentary slot allocated to the ecologists".
According to the legal draft published on the Senate website, the proposal aims to ban farms that do not allow animals open-air access by 2040 and to introduce maximum density thresholds, as well as limiting the transport of animals on national territory to eight hours and ending the practice of culling male chicks and female ducklings. To support farmers in making these changes, the text also provides for the creation of "a transition support fund for Animal Welfare to help farmers and slaughterhouse operators, particularly those whose activities are materially affected by this law".
"I held a lot of hearings, it was not a text written in a hurry, it is what industry leaders predict and consider necessary for the future, but as the elections are coming up, we have to stamp on everything that moves," Esther Benbassa said regretfully today. She believes that "if small matters like this are rejected, we wonder how we are going to move things forward."
