In these times of climate change, cows are no longer in the odor of holiness. And even the Court of Auditors, little follower of decline, is getting started. In its report on cattle breeding published on Monday, it is clear: “Compliance with France’s commitments to reduce methane emissions necessarily calls for a significant reduction in livestock. “Because the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) of cattle are substantial, “mainly due to the methane produced during the digestion of animals”, what is colloquially called cow farts.
France, Europe’s leading producer of beef and second dairy herd behind Germany, has approximately 17 million head of cattle. Which are responsible for 11.8% of the country’s GHG emissions, as much as all of the country’s residential buildings. “The balance sheet of cattle breeding for the climate is unfavorable”, writes the Court of Auditors without surprise. And the technique of conserving grasslands to store carbon is far from enough to offset all these emissions.
A sudden and unplanned decrease
No other solution therefore than to lower the number of heads. If in its report the Court notes that “the National Strategic Plan for the CAP drawn up by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty does not however directly address the issue of the reduction of livestock”, it specifies that the Ministry communicated to him “his hypotheses on the evolution of the cattle herd” which could decline to approximately 15 million head in 2035 and 13.5 million in 2050. But “this reduction remains suffered and is not the subject of a real piloting by the State, to the detriment of the operators”, criticizes the Court.
“Reading that your activity must cease or largely decrease, it is very complicated for breeders” already fewer and fewer, retorts Arnaud Rousseau, the boss of the FNSEA, the majority union. He further assures that this measure is “lived[e] like a real wound. For the agricultural leader, French livestock can reduce its emissions through innovation – additives in the ration of cows promise to reduce the production of methane – and without the need to push breeders to separate from their herds.
Eating less meat, a climatic necessity
At the Confédération paysanne, a union less focused on productivism, we are not particularly enthusiastic about the recommendation either. “It’s not something you wear,” says Nicolas Girod, spokesperson for Conf’ and himself a dairy farmer in the Jura. “Reducing the number of heads but without calling into question how the animals are raised, it is not interesting”, he specifies, adding to reject “industrial breeding”, a model which corresponds more to the standards of the FNSEA. , which defends a “breeding correlated to the market and to consumption needs, at this stage there is little or no decline”. However, the Court of Auditors recommends a reduction in the consumption of red meat. She recalls that a third of French people consume “more than the ceiling of 500 g per week of red meat recommended by the national health nutrition plan”.
Finally Nicolas Girod recalls that depending on the farming conditions, “the cow can have a social, environmental and food utility which counterbalances its negative climatic impact. You have to get away from a simple mathematical rule. »