2024-02-01 23:10:40
Mgr. Marc Aillet, Bishop of Bayonne, Lescar and Oloron, recently issued a press release in which he expresses his support for farmers and criticizes the economic and agricultural policies that penalize them. He underlines that the economy should serve man and not the other way around, defending the right of every person to live with dignity from their work. Mgr. Aillet highlights the need to redefine the decision-making processes between the European Union and the member states and to implement a new Common Agricultural Policy that respects the dignity of farmers. Finally, he underlines that the agricultural crisis is actually a crisis of civilization, which goes beyond the situation of farmers:
Press release from Monsignor Marc Aillet, Bishop of Bayonne, Lescar and Oloron:
Already fifteen years ago (it was 6 October 2009), I wrote in a press release entitled “For an economy and agriculture at the service of man”:
“The economy is made for man and not man for the economy. For this reason the Church defends the right of every man to live from the fruits of his own work, to receive a “fair wage” or to be remunerated according to a “fair price”, suitable to allow him to live with dignity with everyone. his people.
It is with the same spirit that several of my brother bishops have expressed themselves in recent days to support the just demands of farmers, whose mobilization is not weakening and who are fighting today not to disappear.
As far as I’m concerned, I know well the gravity of the situation and the discomfort of many farmers in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques, in France and elsewhere, sometimes forced to sell at a loss due to the unfair competition to which they are subjected and unbearable constraints (rules, regulations, controls , etc.) that weigh on them. Do we know, for example, that official statistics report the suicide of a farmer every two days in France? I therefore wish to assure them of my full moral and spiritual support. I am also convinced that they will also be able to count on the active solidarity of the faithful of the diocese.
The government immediately tries to overcome the current crisis by announcing a series of measures (blocking the increase in the tax on non-road diesel, emergency funds, simplification of regulations, etc.), which probably will not put out the fire nor “Let’s save the our agriculture”.
Indeed, how can we claim to save agriculture without calling into question several dozen free trade agreements or treaties negotiated and ratified in Brussels, treaties of neoliberal and globalist inspiration that put French and European agriculture at risk? who are exempt from compliance with the environmental and health regulations to which our farmers are still subject?
The survival of our agriculture and our food sovereignty are no more compatible with the “Green Deal” (European Green Pact) and the so-called “Farm to Fork” program than with the pretext of protecting the environment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, predict a decline in agriculture and livestock farming on a European scale (fallowing, 10 to 20% reduction in agricultural surfaces and agricultural production, etc.).
It will undoubtedly be necessary, one day or another, to redefine the decision-making processes between the European Union and each of the Member States when their vital interests are at stake and to implement, as many agricultural unions hope, a new CAP (Common Agricultural Policy ) more respectful of the dignity of farmers, who do not simply intend to depend on aid or subsidies, but aspire to live off the fruit of their labor.
But be careful: the crisis that the agricultural world is going through is actually a crisis of civilization, whose problems go far beyond the situation of farmers and the question of our food autonomy.
Historian and renowned specialist in the agricultural world, Raymond Delatooche wrote:
“Farmers are the necessary origin, the irreplaceable foundation of every society. There is no example in history in which a civilization that has its roots in the peasant family does not survive the peasants.
We are therefore proud of our roots, we are not afraid to give farmers and their just demands the support they deserve, we also dare to remember that a France without farmers would no longer be France, to defend our identity… And may God bless the work of the peasants of France!
+ Marc Aillet, bishop of Bayonne, Lescar and Oloron, 1 February 2024
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