What Benoît spoke about.

24

Apr

2024

FR Speech

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Simplification of certain CAP rules (C9-0120/2024) (vote)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to make a point of order under Rule 200 of the Rules of Procedure. Farmers have been protesting for months because they cannot make a living from their work, because they are subject to unfair competition, because they see agro-industry and large-scale distribution filling their pockets on their backs. We have solutions: end the Mercosur agreemen…

26

Feb

2024

FR Speech

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Tackling the inflation in food prices and its social consequences and root causes (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, the war in Ukraine has opened up a new angle in the speculative cynics that have been set up by multinationals for decades on food. Moscow knew about our dependence on gas and fertilizers. Moscow was aware of the dependence of some Mediterranean countries on Black Sea wheat. Putin used our weaknesses. The WTO is a failure. It no longer guarantees the smooth circulation …

8

Feb

2024

FR Speech

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Multilateral negotiations in view of the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi, 26-29 February 2024 (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, the war unleashed by Vladimir Putin two years ago has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. Its consequences are terrible beyond the conflict zone. The WTO’s neoliberal agricultural policies, introduced in the mid-1990s, have failed. They have not reduced the number of hungry people in the world. The promise of food security based on globalised trade in agricultural p…

6

Feb

2024

FR Speech

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Water crisis and droughts in the EU as a consequence of the global climate crisis and the need for a sustainable, resilient water strategy for Europe (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, every summer the recurrence of droughts leads us to conclude that we are dealing with a structural problem. In addition, extreme flooding has also occurred in recent years. In truth, we are dealing with two sides of the same coin. By always wanting to expel water to the sea, ever faster, we have no longer been able to retain this vital, yet essential, yet strategic reso…

6

Feb

2024

FR Speech

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Plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their food and feed (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, 25 July 2018: What does the Court of Justice of the European Union tell us? She tells us that no matter how we get a genetic modification, we are dealing with GMOs. Rather than complying with a decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union, we are trying to change the rules on GMOs without implying that they are GMOs. As the earth shakes with the ang…

6

Feb

2024

FR Question

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Plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their food and feed (debate)

Mr Dorfmann, you tell us that these new technologies will allow us to move forward on the ambitions of the Farm to Fork Strategy. Except that these new technologies are opposed to seed autonomy, to the genetic autonomy of farmers, who have solutions through the ecotypes they develop themselves. These new technologies threaten them, because of the possible pollution that these new GMO varieties can…

17

Jan

2024

FR Speech

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Improving the socio-economic situation of farmers and rural areas, ensuring fair incomes, food security as well as a just transition (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we agree that agriculture is in crisis. But rather than thinking that this crisis is cyclical and constantly providing answers to the consequences of these successive crises, should we not rather identify the causes and share together the observation that the problem is structural? To refloat this drunken boat with great reinforcement of billions o…

14

Dec

2023

FR Speech

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Outcome of the UN Climate Change Conference 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (COP28) (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as others have said before me, the progress of this COP cannot be denied. After a difficult start, and even if we can regret unclear formulations, a political act is taken: Fossil fuels are the source of the climate crisis and the world needs to get out of it. I would also like to draw your attention to another crucial point: For the first time in COP history, 1…

19

Oct

2023

FR Speech

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European protein strategy (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, European livestock farming is in crisis. The degrowth, so decried by the opponents of political ecology, is already underway. Over the last five years, the European cattle herd has decreased by 4%, or by more than 3 million animals. And it is not the Farm to Fork Strategy or the Nature Restoration Regulation that is responsible for this. This de…

17

Oct

2023

FR Speech

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Water scarcity and structural investments in access to water in the EU (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in the face of climate change, access to water, both quantitatively and qualitatively, will be absolutely central. It is in this sense that, already a year ago, I called for the emergence of a European conference. Water is a vital common good that we must relearn to share in order to move away from the logic of grabbing for the benefit of certain e…

4

Oct

2023

FR Speech

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The proposed extension of glyphosate in the EU (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, once it is not customary, I agree with the French authorities who consider, I quote them, that it would be necessary for EFSA and the European Commission to finalise as soon as possible the methodology for assessing the effects on biodiversity and ecosystems, which are nevertheless the pillars of our hope for food sovereignty. In the meantime, as the German Minister for…

12

Sep

2023

FR Speech

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Ukrainian grain exports after Russia’s exit from the Black Sea Grain Initiative (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, it is true that in July Vladimir Putin withdrew from the North Sea Grain Agreement. In addition to jeopardising this initiative, which has allowed tens of millions of tonnes of grain to be exported, its army is attacking Ukraine’s export infrastructure. What a cynicism! Hunger must not be a weapon. It will account for the suffering of hundreds o…

11

Jul

2023

FR Question

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Nature restoration (debate)

Mr. Lebreton, I speak French, so you can stay at the desk. Mr Lebreton, as you know, I am a farmer myself. And what threatens food sovereignty, what threatens the future of agriculture, what threatens farmers’ incomes, is not the nature, it is not the climate balance, it is the ever-increasing use of pesticides, the ever-increasing use of synthetic fertilisers. This is what really threatens food s…

15

Jun

2023

FR Speech

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The water crisis in Europe (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, when all the laws dealing with the subject of water state in Article 1 that ‘water is common’, this premise calls for at least one central dimension: that of sharing. For this sharing to be possible, it is essential that we take on the hierarchy of its priorities and reaffirm fundamentals: access to drinking water of sufficient quality – it is a…

10

May

2023

FR Speech

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The role of farmers as enablers of the green transition and a resilient agricultural sector (continuation of debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, it is now urgent for farmers, for future generations, to realise that, without nature, I say without nature, ladies and gentlemen, there is no agriculture, there is no food. Agriculture is a strategic sector to achieve food sovereignty, but also to be at the rendezvous of history. In the face of climate change, the collapse of biodiversity and the preservation of health…

16

Mar

2023

FR Speech

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European Citizens’ Initiative "Save bees and farmers! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment" (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, what this European Citizens' Initiative, and others before it, are asking for is that citizens pay attention to the issues of climate, biodiversity, health, food sovereignty and dignified remuneration for farmers. It therefore obliges us to place the subject of agriculture in a real debate of society, a debate of society on the hope of knowing how to combine the…

16

Feb

2023

FR Speech

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Availability of fertilisers in the EU (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, there is no doubt that European farmers are facing a critical situation. The prices of synthetic fertilisers are soaring and the possibility of a shortage exists. This is the result of years of misguided agricultural policies. How have we been able to let our food rely on fossil resources and the production capacities of a handful of multinationals? This dependency is e…

19

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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Global food security as follow-up to the G20 Agriculture Ministers meeting (debate)

Mr President, Minister, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would first like to welcome a strong point from the conclusions of the Agricultural G20: Sustainable food systems are the key to food security. I hope that this simple statement will be more audible to the supporters of the agricultural status quo in this House if it comes precisely from the G20. That said, there is a large absence of t…

6

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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The urgent need for an EU strategy on fertilisers to ensure food security in Europe (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the rise of contemporary agriculture has built its success on three pillars: mechanisation, pesticides and synthetic fertilisers, completely neglecting the impact of these practices on climate, biodiversity and health. However, current knowledge of these practices shows how harmful they are to these fundamental challenges, as well as affecting soil…

13

Sep

2022

FR Speech

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Consequences of drought, fire, and other extreme weather phenomena: increasing EU's efforts to fight climate change (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, last July, at our last plenary session, when I asked that we have this debate on drought, I did not presume the catastrophic summer we were going to experience. Europe, the whole planet, is now aware of the scale of the concrete manifestations of climate change. Historic droughts, nuclear power plants shut down for lack of water to cool them down, disastrous fir…

12

Sep

2022

FR Speech

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New EU Forest Strategy for 2030 – Sustainable Forest Management in Europe (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the forest plays a central role in our battle against global warming. Also, capital is attracted by the profit that can be made by planting trees in order to sell the corresponding carbon credits. Before being an economic space, the forest is a place of life, of biodiversity. We don't look at trees as carbon traps alone. The 800,000 hectares of forest that went …

7

Jul

2022

FR Speech

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Recent heat wave and drought in the EU (debate)

Mr President, yesterday Italy declared a state of emergency in five regions because of the drought. More than one drop of water flows into the Po plain, several hydropower plants have ceased operations, more than 30% of agricultural production is at risk and drinking water production is cut between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Without water, life goes out: Italians are experiencing this sadly now. Droughts …

6

Jul

2022

FR Speech

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Facilitating export of Ukrainian agricultural products: key for Ukrainian economy and global food security (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the debate we have here today is really important. As things stand, of course, every tonne of grain that comes out of Ukraine and reaches the people who need it is a step forward in the fight against hunger. But how did we get there? How did global food stability end up at the mercy of Putin's whims? Our global food system is not resilient: it i…

5

Jul

2022

FR Speech

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Addressing food security in developing countries (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the war in Ukraine has had an immediate impact on agricultural commodity prices and food security. Tens of millions of people, especially in Africa and the Mediterranean basin, face hunger and even starvation. Building food security on the World Trade Organisation and trade liberalisation has thus resulted in increased dependence on imports of essential goods. W…

6

Jun

2022

FR Speech

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Question Time (Commission) Reducing the use of pesticides and strengthening consumer protection

Commissioner, this is not a question. I would like to amplify and reinforce my point by saying that substitutes for pesticides are not necessarily new pesticides, new biopesticides, but above all agronomic practices that anticipate and prevent attacks by fungi and insects, for example by using less nitrogen. These are alternative methods that generate true virtuous circles for biodiversity, for ou…