Greenpeace activists dumped, Monday, July 10, nearly a ton of green algae in front of the Finistère prefecture to denounce the chronic pollution of Breton beaches, noted a photographer from Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Factory farms: neither here nor elsewhere,” proclaimed a large yellow banner stretched above a pile of green algae, in front of the Quimper prefecture. “Polluted Britain: Guilty State,” read another banner carried by activists in white coveralls, some with gas masks.
Large photos of factory farms, manure pits and polluted beaches were also hung on the gates of the prefecture, next to a huge inflatable pig.
The action, which began at 6:30 a.m., ended around 11:30 a.m., without incident or arrest, according to an AFP correspondent. The green algae were picked up in the morning by road officials.
“State Responsibility”
“The objective was to denounce the responsibility of the State and the prefectures in the proliferation of green algae, which are directly linked to the rise of factory farms,” Sandy Olivar Calvo told AFP. agricultural campaign manager
In a press release, the prefect of Finistère condemned this action and announced the filing of a complaint “to obtain compensation for any lasting damage”, while acknowledging that “the damage committed by posting remained limited”.
Greenpeace had notably posted, on a door of the prefecture, a map of some 3,000 “factory farms” in France (out of 145,000 farms specializing in livestock), mainly poultry and pigs.
According to a press release from the association for the defense of the environment, “nearly one out of two factory farms is located in Brittany and more than 25 million animals can be locked up in the 445 factory farms in Finistère”. .
Potentially deadly gas
Present at sea in their natural state, green algae proliferate in the bays of Brittany, where they are fed by manure spread by farmers in the fields, and whose surpluses are transported by coastal rivers. These ulvas, without risk when they are fresh, emit while decomposing a potentially fatal gas, hydrogen sulphide (H2S).
By this action in Quimper, Greenpeace particularly intended to denounce the contested validation of the extension of the pigsty to 12,000 pigs “Avel Vor”, in Landunvez (Finistère). An appeal has been filed to cancel the regularization by the prefect in November 2022 of this expansion, yet challenged twice by the administrative justice.
The prefect recalled in his press release that the regularization decree of November 8, 2022 had been taken following the favorable opinions of the commissioner-investigator and the departmental council for the environment and health and technological risks.
