50 meters from Emmanuel Thomas’s farm, a sign indicates to cattle trucks the direction to follow to find the entrance to the allotment center – these sites where livestock are grouped and sorted. In addition to his herd of 80 Limousin cows, the 61-year-old farmer manages an import-export center through which up to 700 cattle can pass before leaving for abroad: ten buildings covered with photovoltaic panels, 605 hectares of land spread across the neighboring towns of Peyrilhac and Nieul, 20 kilometers north of Limoges, in Haute-Vienne. Enough to encourage T’Rhéa, a subsidiary of the meat trading group Carnivor, to position itself to take over SAS Terres de Chavaignac from its owner, who is about to retire.
In August 2023, the agro-industrialist submitted an environmental authorization request to the prefecture to transform the site into a fattening workshop intended to accommodate 3,100 ruminants. “2,500 in buildings and 600 in pastures”explains Pascal Novak, territorial development project manager at T’Rhéa, which would classify it among the largest units of this type in France, rivaling in size with the large Spanish or Italian fattening centers.
A sign of the excitement caused in the region, the public inquiry organized from March 11 to April 12 collected no less than 12,000 contributions from individuals, associations, unions and even communities. The scale of the mobilization surprised even the investigating commissioner, who was forced to request additional time to examine all of the depositions. The prefect of Haute-Vienne, François Pesneau, gave him until June 12 to submit his report.
“An insult to animal welfare”
In the meantime, faced with what they consider to be a “megafarm” inspired by American factory farms, the opponents are united. First concerned, local residents living within a radius of 100 to 500 meters around the farm are concerned about possible nuisances linked to the spreading of manure and its transport to a methanizer located in Saint-Laurent-sur-Gorre, in around thirty kilometers away, for which no project has yet been submitted.
Added to these concerns are those of nature protection associations. Michel Galliot, the president of France Nature Enthronement Limousin, which brings together around forty established in the region, highlights the shortcomings of the impact study presented by the project leader. The same goes for the Friends of the Earth association, which questions the ability of the future center to be self-sufficient in water. “The assessment of needs is fanciful: daily consumption per animal is likely to be much higher than forecast”she wrote in her contribution to the public inquiry.