French Lawmakers Approve Emergency Farm Bill

France’s National Assembly on Tuesday adopted an emergency agriculture bill that would make it easier to build water storage for irrigation, tighten controls on food imports and simplify a range of farming rules, in a move lawmakers said was meant to protect farm production and strengthen the country’s agricultural sovereignty.

The vote came after several weeks of debate in the lower house, which examined the measure from May 19 to May 30. The bill was presented in Cabinet on April 8 and was approved in a final vote after questions to the government on Tuesday afternoon. It now sets out a broad framework touching water access, wetlands, public procurement, livestock protection, farm income and legal challenges against major projects.

At the center of the text is a push to support what the government calls “future agricultural projects,” a new category meant to help local economic actors develop production, processing facilities and innovation. During committee work, deputies added goals such as preserving balanced territorial coverage, expanding transformation infrastructure and supporting output in certain sectors. The bill also opens the door to financing new technologies in agriculture.

One of the most closely watched parts of the legislation concerns water. The text favors the creation of reservoirs for irrigation, a long-running demand from many farmers facing more frequent droughts and tighter competition over water resources. It also addresses environmental rules tied to wetlands and drinking-water catchment areas, though some of those provisions were removed or rejected during committee review. Lawmakers dropped an initial proposal to make compensation measures for projects affecting wetlands more closely match the functions of those wetlands. They also rejected changes to the legal framework for protecting drinking-water intakes.

The bill also strengthens oversight of imported food products. It reinforces legal tools aimed at blocking imports of food treated with substances or medicines banned within the European Union. It creates a national brigade tasked with checking food products at borders and across French territory. In public catering, the bill bans non-European sourcing and expands the list of products eligible for the 50% threshold for sustainable and quality foods already established under France’s EGAlim law.

Several provisions are designed to simplify agricultural regulations and protect productive land. The text seeks to limit the artificialization of farmland and gives greater powers to Safer agencies, which oversee rural land markets, in an effort to curb fragmentation of agricultural plots. It also simplifies procedures that allow livestock farmers to defend herds against wolf predation.

The government is also being authorized to legislate by decree on two sensitive issues: sanitary safety in agriculture in the context of climate change and the creation of a specific environmental police force for livestock operations, separate from the regime governing classified industrial installations. The bill further toughens penalties for theft committed on farms.

Another section aims to improve farmers’ position in the supply chain and support income. It tightens rules governing relations between farmers and first buyers by shortening upstream negotiations. It extends an experiment known as the “price tunnel” and includes measures intended to raise returns on cooperative shares so agricultural cooperatives can strengthen their equity base. The text also seeks to curb certain commercial practices by retailers, including repeated tender calls that farmers say can pressure prices downward.

The final title is aimed at discouraging abusive legal challenges against projects linked to low-carbon energy, transport infrastructure, agriculture, industry, urban planning and development. Under that provision, project sponsors targeted by lawsuits could seek compensation for harm caused by those actions.

The adoption reflects a broader political effort in France to respond to farmer complaints over income pressure, regulatory burdens and access to water, while balancing those demands against environmental protections that have become increasingly contentious in rural policy debates.