The government presented on Sunday a major plan on breeding intended to stem the decline in French livestock, including measures to reduce taxes on breeders and to improve the image of meat. Called “government plan to regain our sovereignty over livestock”, this document was presented on Sunday by the Ministry of Agriculture to agricultural unions and inter-professional organizations during the Agricultural Show, indicated one of the participants in this presentation.
Beyond the drop in the number of farms, “the remuneration of breeders remains generally lower than in other agricultural production despite the increase in public support, in particular from the CAP, over the past decade”, underlines the document. The preparation of a major plan intended to support livestock farming has emerged since the start of the agricultural crisis as one of the main demands of the sector’s unions. The government, which had already presented several measures, is committed to accelerating their implementation, indicates a press release from the ministry published in the morning.
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These include tax and social benefits worth 150 million euros for cattle farmers, a plan to provide 400 million euros in guaranteed loans to the livestock sector from July, as well as the publication of a decree at the end of February protecting the names used to designate foodstuffs of animal origin. The government also wants to “fight unjustified attacks against livestock farming,” the press release adds. The consumption of meat, for example, “must not be stigmatized,” according to the plan.
“Reducing the size of our breeding herd in France has never constituted and cannot constitute a public policy objective,” states the document. “The reductions in emissions from the livestock sector by 2030 identified in ecological planning (and which will be included in the National Low Carbon Strategy (SNBC) and in the National Strategy for Food, Nutrition and climate (SNANC)) can be achieved without reducing the size of the herd compared to 2023, by acting on other levers, such as animal feed, he adds. Among the measures proposed in the plan are also a 3 million euro communication campaign on agricultural professions or a “reminder” that synthetic meat “does not correspond to our eating model”.