A scene worthy of the Wild West. Saturday morning, a train carrying several hundred tons of wheat was attacked by militants in Noyal-Pontivy in Morbihan. Gathered at the call of the collective “Brittany against factory farms”, around fifty of them built a cinder block wall across the railway tracks to block the freight train which was heading for a nearby food factory. for livestock. Some of the cargo, which activists thought was soybeans, was dumped on the tracks.
“The attack on this train generated the loss of a significant tonnage of wheat and heavy financial damage,” said the prefecture of Morbihan in a press release, condemning “with the greatest firmness this act”. “This act of food waste is scandalous at the very time when France must consolidate its food production capacity in a difficult international context”, continues the prefecture.
Following this blockage, several complaints were filed. “It will be up to the judicial authorities to provide the appropriate responses and to characterize the criminal offense of these acts”, specify the authorities. The wheat recovery operation on the tracks should take place this Monday, resulting in the closure of the departmental road at Noyal-Pontivy.
“Inadmissible” and “irresponsible” according to Julien Denormandie
This punchy action, carried out to denounce intensive agriculture in Brittany, aroused many reactions from all sides. “Simply unacceptable! But also totally irresponsible: destroying cereal production when many countries are short of it at the moment… it’s distressing. Justice must pass, ”tweeted Julien Denormandie, Minister of Agriculture, on Saturday evening.
A little earlier, the Regional Federation of Farmers’ Unions (FRSEA) and the Regional Chamber of Agriculture had denounced “a scandalous action on the part of activists out of touch with reality and acting against the general interest”, calling for “a reaction from the State to put an end to acts of all kinds calling into question our agriculture”.
EELV and the RN denounce this punch action
On the set of Sunday in politics on France 3, Yannick Jadot also criticized this action. “I do not support actions which today put cereals which we need everywhere on the way, denounced the candidate EELV for the presidential election. What I wear is a model of food sovereignty. For years and years, politics has been under pressure from the FNSEA which has decided for this government on our agriculture”.
Through the voice of Gilles Pennelle, its leader in Brittany, the National Rally also protested against this attack which caused the loss of “1,500 tons of wheat, the equivalent of six million baguettes”, calling for heavy penalties against perpetrators.