The French organic industry and its supporters have reacted with dismay and anger at a move by Parliament aimed at abolishing France’s lead pubic interest organic body Agence Bio. 

On Friday (17 January) during a vote in the Senate on the Finance Bill, an amendment was proposed by Senator Laurent Duplomb (LR) to dissolve Agence Bio and transfer its activities into the Ministry of Agriculture, through FranceAgriMer. The amendment’s backers argue that the move will cut EUR 2.9 million of public funding at a time of continuing economic constraints. The Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard, said the proposal was “relevant”, and the amendment was passed. 

But leading figures from France’s organic sector, together with farming bodies and green groups, warned this week that abolishing Agence Bio will undermine the sector at a critical moment of recovery, and say the proposal is primarily politically motivated. They also argue that Agence Bio’s funding is “a drop in the ocean” when set against the total agriculture budget. 

Brutal decision
In a joint statement, they condemned a “brutal decision” coming as Agence Bio has helped set France’s organic sector on the road to recovery and returning sales to its previous high of EUR 13 billion.

Agence Bio director, Laura Verdeau, told the AFP agency: “This suppression, wanted by the senatorial right and to which the Minister of Agriculture did not oppose, would be a very hard blow: it would be the food and agricultural transition hey will have murdered.”  

She criticised the French government over its inconsistencies. “One moment they insist that there is room for all (farming) models, then they break the interlocutor of the 60,000 organic farms that are a national treasure that we helped to build.” 

During a tense debate in the Senate, Green Senator Daniel Salmon commented: “It shows what we want to do with organic farming. We want it to disappear …. Let’s look instead at the hidden costs of this agriculture that is killing biodiversity and is killing humanity.” 

Deeply irresponsible
Organic label Bio Coherence said the decision “is a serious threat to the development of organic and will weaken essential support. This is deeply irresponsible in a context where the development of organic farming represents a crucial issue for the environment and public health, such a measure goes against the current ecological and societal priorities.” 

Frédérick Faure, vice president of leading organic retailer Biocoop wrote on LinkedIn: “Why Minister do you want to bury Agence Bio when it is agriculture that is dying? In addition to incessant and pernicious attacks (on organic), we hear arguments that are not arguments. Too much public aid for organic farming, apparently? This is not the opinion of the Court of Auditors which let year concluded that ‘organic farming is the best way to succeed in the agri-environmental transition and to lead so-called conventional farms towards more environmentally friendly practices … However, the policy to support organic farming remains insufficient’. 

“And the response of our leaders is to eliminate the few resources put at the service of the recognized model of agriculture to meet the challenges of climate change and the disappearance of biodiversity?”