Traffic jams on the ring road, congestion in the city center. This Tuesday, farmers, driving their tractors, gave Toulouse residents a taste of the foreseeable disturbances on Thursday. But that had nothing to do with pension reform. These cereal farmers from all over the department were protesting against new European regulations, which, according to them, do not take into account the specificity of the clay soil of Haute-Garonne.
“The earth is plowed with know-how, not a computer”, or “He who sows misery reaps anger”, could be read on placards stuck on the vehicles participating in this demonstration, at the call of the young farmers (JA31). The grain farmers blocked traffic and then dumped manure and tires in front of the administrative city to demand that their derogation from a European directive on nitrates be maintained.
“We come to add constraint”
Under this European text aimed at protecting the soil from nitrate pollution, farmers must plant plants between two crops, so as not to leave the land bare. But until now, cereal farmers in Haute-Garonne were exempt because their land, which often contains more than 25% clay, is particularly difficult to cultivate in winter.
“We are adding constraints to an agriculture which is already very weakened in Haute-Garonne”, deplores Thomas Klunker, the co-secretary general of JA31.
After having added, using a backhoe loader, the flag of the JA to the French and European flags which waved on the entrance of the administrative city, the demonstrators plowed with a tractor a piece of grass of a place.