VZCZCXRO2693
RR RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLZ RUEHROV
DE RUEHFR #0514 0400556
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 090556Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4806
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES
RUEHMRE/AMCONSUL MARSEILLE 1519
RUEHSR/AMCONSUL STRASBOURG 0318
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2596
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC

UNCLAS PARIS 000514 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
BRUSSELS PASS USEU FOR AGMINCOUNSELOR 
STATE FOR OES; EUR/ERA ; 
STATE PASS USTR FOR MURPHY; 
USDA/OS/JOHANNS/TERPSTRA; 
USDA/FAS FOR OA/YOST; 
OCRA/CURTIS 
ONA/RIEMENSCHNEIDER 
FAA/YOUNG; 
EU POSTS PASS TO AGRICULTURE AND ECON 
GENEVA FOR USTR, ALSO AGRICULTURE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR ETRD EU FR
 
SUBJECT: FRENCH AGRICULTURAL ELECTIONS REFLECT SOME CHANGES 
¶1.  Summary.  French agricultural stakeholders recently held 
elections to choose their representatives to the Agricultural 
Chamber of Commerce, an influential organization for French 
agriculture that works with the Government of France to manage and 
 
implement farm policy.  Election results showed that the largest 
farm organization, FNSEA, maintained its majority position. 
Interestingly, the leftist, anti-biotech group, Confederation 
Paysanne, once led by anti-globalization leader Jose Bove, lost 
ground in its number of representatives.  The protestor union, 
Coordination Rurale, politically close to the far right and an 
opponent of the trade liberalization, won an unexpected number of 
positions, becoming the second largest farm union in metropolitan 
France after FNSEA.  End summary 
 
¶2.  Every six years, French agricultural stakeholders cast their 
ballots for representatives to their local level Chamber of 
Agriculture.  On January 31, the main farm organization, FNSEA, won 
55 percent of the seats to the French Agricultural Chambers of 
Agriculture (APCA).  Control of APCA is important in French 
agriculture because this organization works with the GOF to manage 
and implement farm policy.  Luc Guyau, currently President of APCA 
and former president of FNSEA, is expected to keep his post for 
another six-year term.  Guyau has a high international profile, 
having served as President of COPA, the European Farmer's 
Organization, and as a participant in high-level events such as the 
Doha trade round talks.  He is a staunch supporter of protectionist 
measures, such as high domestic and export subsidies, for French 
farmers.  His views on foreign competition and the value of 
international trade are, however, more conciliatory than those of 
other farmer groups. 
 
¶4. While polls had forecast a drop for FNSEA, the Union was able to 
keep its lead, and even regain, some of the chambers lost in the 
last election in 2001.  Election turnout was strong; about 66 
percent of eligible voters participated in their local election. 
These voters consisted of farmers, farm workers, landowners and 
retired farmers, cooperatives agricultural banks and insurance 
companies and others working in the farm and food industry.  The 
total number of voters was 2.8 million, down 10 percent from 2001, 
of which 585,000 were farmers, a decrease of 15 percent from 2001 
and reflects the erosion of the French farm community.  FNSEA will 
likely head all but a few of the 94 local chambers of Agriculture. 
 
¶5. The election outcome received wide media coverage.  Of particular 
interest was the fall of support for Confederation Paysanne. 
Analysts linked it to the far-left political stance of its former 
spokesperson, and now presidential candidate, Jos Bove and to the 
destruction of biotech fields and crops by Confederation Paysanne 
activists in the summer and fall of 2006.  The destruction of 
agricultural property was widely criticized by a majority of 
farmers.  Other analysts linked the rise in support for Coordination 
Rurale as a protest against the perceived dismemberment of the EU 
Common Agricultural Policy.  Coordination Rurale favors EU 
protection through higher tariffs and increased sanitary and 
phytosanitary constraints for imports.  It further supports 
excluding agriculture from WTO negotiations and opposes biotech, not 
from a policy standpoint, but because the market does not support a 
need for GMOs. 
 
¶6.  Thus, the recent election reinforces FNSEA's position as the 
strongest farm organization in France and also heralds a potential 
shift from far left to more moderate leanings in parts of French 
agriculture. 
WHITE