Max Bauer: "The State must stop acting as a firefighter and become a strategist"

Geopolitical tension in the strait of Ormuz is already reverberating through the French countryside. The blockage of this strategic global transit point is slowing down the supply of oil, gas, and fertilizers, causing a surge in costs that threatens an already weakened national agriculture. As 2027 approaches, many farms fear a wave of closures if no structural measures are taken to stem this new crisis.

For Max Bauer, the time for temporary fixes is over. The former agricultural unionist is sounding the alarm and urging the government to take the measure of the situation. STRATEGIC VISION Faced with the urgency, Max Bauer insists on the need to abandon knee-jerk reactions to build a sustainable agricultural policy: "The State can no longer just react to crises!

It must stop acting as a firefighter and become a strategist again to guarantee the economic viability of our agriculture.

Without a clear plan and a long-term vision, France is exposed not only to cascading bankruptcies, but also to a lasting weakening of its food sovereignty. A situation that demands concrete responses to the commitments made by the President of the Republic during the last Salon International de l'Agriculture."

This energy dependency scenario is not new. The former unionist recalls that the war in Ukraine, in 2022, had already highlighted the vulnerabilities of the French agricultural sector to external shocks: "At the time, the State's response was deemed insufficient to protect farmers. Today, history seems to be repeating itself: the inexorable rise in the price of non-road diesel (GNR) and nitrogen fertilizers once again places field crops, as well as all sectors, in an untenable economic situation, suffocating cash flows and compromising future sowing."

To break out of this spiral of fossil fuel dependency, he puts forward proposals focused on a controlled energy transition. And he proposes redirecting agricultural policy toward electricity, an energy source considered more stable and competitive thanks to the French nuclear fleet and the development of photovoltaics: "It could become an asset for our farms, provided it is distributed at cost price."

Among the key measures suggested are alignment with support schemes already in place in Espagne and Allemagne, the decoupling of the electricity price from that of gas, as well as better remuneration for electricity produced by agricultural solar: "I advocate for the relaunch of a national production sector for nitrogen fertilizers, relying on decarbonized hydrogen. In the short term, emergency measures are demanded, such as temporarily capping GNR at one euro per liter and establishing a tariff shield on gas to get through the current crisis," says Max says Bauer.