France passes law to protect farmers against ‘townie’ complaints

 

On Tuesday (12 March), the French Senate approved a law protecting farmers against growing complaints from new rural residents about the nuisance caused by farm activities, such as the crowing of cockerels in the morning or the smell of manure.

“When you choose the countryside, you accept it and you take responsibility for it,” French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal told a press conference on 1 February, promising to speed up the approval of the law, proposed in 2023 by MP Nicole Le Peih (Renaissance/Renew) and already approved by the National Assembly last December.

The new rules aim to protect farmers against complaints that have been piling up for several years.

With the arrival of urban dwellers, or ‘townies’, in the countryside, especially since the Covid crisis, farmers have been receiving increasing complaints from ‘new’ residents annoyed by the side effects of normal agricultural activities, such as manure odours and noise caused by animals. (...)