“I signed the decree for the extension of this breeding,” said the prefect of Finistère Philippe Mahé on Wednesday, confirming information from the daily Le Télégramme. It corresponds to “the legal conditions for extension”, he estimated. The pigsty of 12,000 pigs in Landunvez, near Brest, had been challenged twice by administrative justice and contested by many residents. It will therefore be able to fatten up to 26,600 pigs per year.
“Last Friday, the departmental council for the environment and health and technological risks (Coder st) had given a favorable opinion on the new file submitted by this farm called Avel Vor (“wind from the sea” in Breton).
To respond to residents’ concerns, the prefect announced the establishment of a “local monitoring body” for water quality in this area. “We will put water quality monitoring on the table in complete transparency. If there is pollution, we will look for its origin, ”assured Philippe Mahé. “It is not satisfactory to know that beaches are polluted but no one has been able to say precisely the origin of the pollution,” he added.
Closed beaches, degraded water, air pollution… Opponents denounce the multiple nuisances linked to this breeding, which are added, according to them, to those of neighboring farms, degrading the environment of the municipality.
Justice in the face of a fait accompli
The public inquiry conducted in 2015 issued an unfavorable opinion on this extension. But the prefect at the time had nevertheless authorized it in April 2016. Seized by the opponents, the administrative justice canceled the extension decree at first instance and on appeal, in 2019 and 2021.
But the pigsty was then already enlarged, producing 27,000 meat pigs per year in a town of barely 1,500 inhabitants, under a provisional prefectural authorization.
A probable criminal complaint for “endangering the lives of others”
“We are openly laughing at us”, reacted Wednesday Laurent Le Berre, president of the Association for the protection of the coast of legends (APPCL). According to him, the associations will boycott the water quality monitoring body proposed by the prefect, which he described as a “vast joke”.
“We are going to ask for the repeal of this new decree which is obviously perfectly illegal,” he added. “Court decisions have fallen, it is not normal to regularize from behind. A “funeral march” against the extension of the “megapig” took place this summer.
The associations also intend to file a criminal complaint for “endangering the lives of others”. In the Pays du Léon, the production of pigs in places exceeds 3,000 pigs per km². Brittany ranks sixth in Europe for the size of its pig herd.