“Thirty years of State-FNSEA co-management to get to this point!” warns the Modef union

“L'urgence de la situation, particulièrement viticole, appelle à sortir des vieux mécanismes bloqués par les puissants acteurs du marché” explique Frédéric Mazer, éleveur à Corbès. Midi Libre – STEPHANE BARBIER

While the international agricultural show has just opened its doors this Saturday, in a rather explosive atmosphere, the Modef Gard union is sorry not to have been informed of ;a prefectural visit, on February 17, only at the last moment. By press release, they denounce 'the Fnsea and State" and call for implementing one of the union's historic demands concerning the establishment of a floor price for agricultural products. 

Under the double pen of Xavier Fabre, winegrower in Domazan and Frédéric Mazer, breeder in Corbès, the union of the Movement for the Defense of Family Farmers (Modef) reacted to a late invitation from the sub- prefect at the Massillargues cooperative cellar.
" Two meetings at the initiative of the Prefect and the sub-prefect of Gard were organized in Saint Gilles and at the cooperative cellar of Massillargues-Atuech. MODEF was only invited at the last moment, a few hours before. We remind you that we are above all small farmers and not large farms benefiting from the flexibility provided by the employment of one or more employees. The little financial contribution from the state to our union cannot make us professionals in trade unionism. We cannot therefore abandon our operations at the last moment to respond to the wishes of the administration!"

A field visit which somewhat reassures the two unionists while deploring that the State's relationship with the FNSEA is not the most virtuous.
"Knowing that MODEF had already requested the prefect for a meeting, we are delighted that he is finally coming to the field to take stock of the agricultural problems. But it would be appropriate if, through better material organization, these visits avoided the State-FNSEA inter-relationship which has never provided and will no longer provide new solutions. It is the State-FNSEA co-management which led to the current situation and the mobilizations of last month."

The presence of representatives of MODEF of GARD during field visits would allow the debate to take place calmly

In conclusion, the two trade unionists call for getting out of the inoperative and worn-out cogs of a system that is running out of steam and ask to be heard on their ;historical floor price claim.  

" The urgency of the situation, particularly in the wine sector, calls for a move away from old mechanisms blocked by powerful market players. Farmers want a fair income to pay for their work. Solutions exist. One of them is the implementation of a floor price for agricultural products! Certainly this historic demand of MODEF is winning minds and ground … All that is missing is courageous public policies to apply it! "