The Government encourages farmers to replant hedgerows torn up in France during the consolidation of the 1960s. Or we rediscover that hedges are a natural barrier against runoff and soil erosion. Illustration in Loire-Atlantique, in Blain, where Eric Favre, a young farmer, replanted hedges on his property with the financial and technical assistance of the Chamber of Agriculture.
Agricultural hedgerows bordered for centuries the fieldss and meadows of the countryside but they were largely destroyed during the various remembrements imposed by agricultural industrialization. These country hedges are now back in grace because of their interest in biodiversity: natural windbreak, roots to filter water from the soil by removing pollutants, refuge for wild animals in winter, honey essences or insecticide essences. Illustration in Basse Ariège, in Villeneuve-du-Paréage, where the Community of communes of the Pays de Pamiers decided to replant kilometers of hedges.
Michel COINTAT, Minister for Agriculture, speaks about the disadvantages and limits of land consolidation in terms of costs and environment and its biological consequences detrimental to all. Hedgerows and hedgerows are left in some places to maintain the beauty of the landscape and biological balance.
Interview with Paul Matagrin, agronomist at the Ecole nationale supérieure agronomique de Rennes (ENSAR), about the consolidation and its probably dangerous consequences for the climate and the ancestral biological balance of the regions of Brittany. Images of hedges and embankments illustrate his remarks.