A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #356 - Factory Farms: The Irresistible Rise of Agribusiness? (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

On December 15th in Lorient, the trial of 12 people accused of opposing 
the delivery of food destined for factory farms took place. This trial 
provided the defendants with an opportunity to highlight the foundations 
and harmful consequences of agribusiness. A few days earlier, on 
November 29th, a European day of action against factory farms was 
organized by the Stop Factory Farming Europe network, of which the RAFU 
coalition ("Resistance to Factory Farms"), which originated in Brittany 
in 2022, is a part, coordinating actions in France. While it received 
little support at the national and European levels, in the small village 
of Celle-Lévescault, in the Vienne department, more than 200 people 
gathered to oppose the conversion of a goat farm (already operating on 
an intensive model) into a henhouse slated to house 140,088 laying hens, 
producing 46 million eggs per year. The future operator and the local 
prefecture justify this facility (which resembles a factory and has 
little to do with a farm) by citing the growing demand for eggs (the 
cheapest animal protein on the market) and the fact that France has not 
been self-sufficient in this sector for several years. This reasoning 
ignores the issues of food waste, nuisances, and pollution generated by 
these operations, not to mention the ethical implications of animal 
welfare. These arguments, however, surprisingly align with those of the 
agribusiness lobbyists, as the primary objective is to enrich large 
industrial groups rather than address the actual needs of the population.

To date, Greenpeace has identified 3,000 factory farms in France, but by 
2030, at least 300 more of these types of poultry farms are expected to 
spring up across the country, facilitated by the "administrative 
simplifications" introduced by the infamous "Duplomb Law."

Moving the struggle beyond individualism
Apart from the emblematic case of the fight against the 1,000-cow farm 
near Abbeville in the Somme region around 2010, protests against these 
farms, symptomatic of the industrialization of agriculture, have 
received little national attention. When struggles against these 
facilities receive media attention, they are often presented through the 
lens of the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) argument. What interests the 
media most is the emotional response they can elicit from local 
residents who are struggling to sell their homes or are forced to 
drastically lower their asking prices. Certainly, for those living near 
such a farm, the loss of property value is a major concern, a source of 
anxiety for the future and significant stress. But for the media, the 
issue often stops short of criticism of the agricultural model itself. 
It was to counter accusations of individualism ("You don't want it near 
your home, but you buy eggs at the supermarket at the lowest price") 
that, when the question of organizing a mobilization against this 
project arose, the slogan "Neither here nor anywhere else" was 
immediately put forward. Therefore, the issue is no longer about 
opposing a project that threatens the living environment of a few, but 
about including this opposition within the broader context of opposing a 
"large, useless, and imposed project" (GPII), thus prompting a wider 
reflection on the agricultural model and on consumer choices within the 
contemporary capitalist system. In short, it is about making this a 
political issue, a question of choosing an agricultural model and a 
societal model.

"Mega-reservoirs, factory farms, the same struggle"
Today in France, there are fewer than 400,000 farmers, representing less 
than 1% of the working population. Among them, 25% will be retired by 
2030, and in just three years, 40,000 farms have disappeared, according 
to the Terre de Liens association. Furthermore, as farms grow larger, 
they become increasingly difficult to pass on, due to a lack of 
necessary capital. 400,000 farmers are supposed to produce enough food 
to feed 68 million people. This model is clearly unsustainable. Worse, 
it creates unsustainable competition for small producers, who are 
crushed by the prices of these industry giants. To meet this challenge, 
in the name of "food sovereignty," what is currently happening in rural 
areas is an accelerated concentration of farmland in favor of powerful 
industrial players who control every link in the production chain: from 
mega-recycling tanks to the packaging of the semi-finished product, 
including the production of animal feed and the processing of manure 
(sold to biogas plants to be transformed into fertilizer). Brittany has 
served as a testing ground for the intensive farming model, with its 
well-known consequences of mistreatment (of both animals and humans) and 
pollution. This model could well spread to other regions tomorrow.

"From each according to their ability, to each according to their 
needs." According to the latest figures on food aid in France, 2.4 
million people receive food assistance from charities, and it is 
estimated that one in two potential beneficiaries does not access it 
(due to lack of information, shame, etc.), potentially bringing the 
number of people experiencing food insecurity to 5 million. Rethinking 
the food production and consumption model is therefore essential, but it 
involves numerous and thorny contradictions that must be overcome. How 
can we direct production towards those who need it and put an end to the 
waste of resources? How can we guarantee a decent income for 
agricultural workers while ensuring that working-class people have 
access to quality food? It is obviously the fundamental antagonism of 
capitalism, of the distribution of wealth between profits and wages, 
that must be addressed. Given the stakes and the political weakness of 
revolutionary movements, compromise solutions could be considered in the 
short or medium term and are beginning to emerge in the public debate, 
such as the socialization of food through a food security system. Some 
such systems are currently being tested, and if these systems become 
widespread, it would be a first step in the fight against the market 
relations associated with food... and all other forms of commerce.

A member of the Collective Against the Vaugeton Factory Farm

https://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4612
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