"We take farmers for fools": Chef Jacques Marcon's anger at the Duplomb law

Three-Michelin-starred chef Jacques Marcon spoke on RMC on Monday about his tense exchanges with Senator Laurent Duplomb over the Duplomb law. The bill "does not at all meet the demands of farmers," according to the chef, who described the senator's comments as "demagogy."

"We are pushing people against each other," Jacques Marcon lamented.

The day after the Duplomb law was adopted by Parliament, the three-star chef of Maisons Marcon, in Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid, in Haute-Loire, published a message on Instagram on July 9.

In the latter, Jacques Macron addressed Senator Laurent Duplomb. The leader pointed out his responsibility for what he sees as "a major step backward" for France, "a pioneer in the banning of pesticides." Jacques Macron also wrote that he was "ashamed to live in Haute-Loire," a department where Laurent Duplomb is a senator.

The latter quickly reacted, inviting him, on July 12, "to take your starry heads out of your kitchen and come visit my farm." "Denouncing productivist agriculture while telling idealized stories in the style of 'Martine at the Farm', on menus at prices inaccessible to the vast majority of French people, does not give you the right to lecture the farmers who feed France," Laurent Duplomb also wrote.

The three-star chef returned to the subject on Monday, speaking to Apolline Matin . "What's terrible is that by using these words, he's once again setting the agricultural world against civil society, and we see farmers feeling very uncomfortable and becoming aggressive because they feel attacked. We need to build bonds between people, we shouldn't separate them. It's very easy to separate people," Jacques Marcon lamented.

The latter also clarified that he does not cook only for the elite: "I make meals for 3.50 euros, for the Saint-Bonnet school, sandwiches for 4.50 euros, menus for 35-40 euros, and here menus for 300 euros."

Regarding the Duplomb law, Jacques Marcon elaborated, reaffirming that farmers were not asking for these measures. "I've been building relationships with farmers for 20 years. I try to listen to them, to understand their problems, but they're not asking for this."

Farmers "are demanding a revaluation of their profession, of their production, and it is not by reapplying pesticides that we will achieve this," the chef insisted.

Jacques Marcon felt that a "reassessment" needed to be made, and has been called for for over 20 years. "We can move towards other production models. What bothers me is that instead of acting at the European level and protecting our agriculture, we are opening our borders again, advocating a liberal agriculture, which will kill our agriculture," he argued on RMC.

"We're really taking farmers for fools. We can't do it anymore. We're making them believe that by reapplying these pesticides, we'll succeed. It's not true," Jacques Marcon emphasized.

The chef also reiterated his "ashamed" of himself, as he had already stated in his Instagram post. He regrets "not having reacted sooner, as a player in the sector." From now on, Jacques Marcon will make his voice heard to defend a certain vision of agriculture.