Document type : Article published in Le Monde
Author: Mathilde Gérard
Preview: The document, defended by the Green Senator Esther Benbassa, was intended to promote outside access for all farm animals and limit transport times, while creating a support fund for farmers.
Both had undertaken at the same time to put an end to this much-deplored practice: in 2019, the then French Minister of Agriculture, Didier Guillaume, and his German counterpart, Julia Klöckner, promised to ban the culling of male chicks by gassing or maceration by the end of 2021, a practice that affects more than 45 million chicks in France each year. Eighteen months later, the German Bundestag, voted on 21 May for a bill to approve this ban. But in France, this measure has not yet been included in any legislative or regulatory documents, and industry representatives indicated in mid-May that the original deadlines will be difficult to meet.
Having been deliberately reduced to four articles - an initial version put forward in February 2020 contained fourteen -, the text had been condensed to focus on a small number of key measures, enabling it to be debated in a parliamentary slot allocated to the Green party. […]
But the government representative attending the examination of the text in session, Alain Griset, Minister Delegate to the Minister for the Economy, saw its contents as "a radical position, which would put an end to French livestock farming". One by one, all the articles making up the bill were rejected. "On paper, everything is very simple. But on the ground, these measures are not viable", said the centrist senator Françoise Férat (Marne). "We share the goal of a more animal-friendly farming system that allows a better remuneration of farmers, but the PPL [draft bill] is not practicable and fails to take into account the reality of the situation", added Arnaud Bazin (Les Républicains, Val-d'Oise).
The main argument put forward by the bill's opponents is that it risks distorting the market. Alain Griset in particular argued that France would risk being "rapidly confronted with an increase in lower-cost imported products from countries that do not respect our principles". Daniel Salmon asserts that this criticism is unfounded, believing that "we will always be overwhelmed by countries with lower costs, and we will have to find ways to combat this unfair competition".
Article on the same subject published in France Agricole on 27 May 2021: Le Sénat rejette la proposition de loi pour un "élevage éthique ".
