In the aisles of the Agricultural Show, Étienne Fourmont does not go unnoticed. This year, the Sarthois farmer did not present his animals to visitors. At the stand of the Digital Farm, an association which seeks to combine digital technology and agriculture, he rather came with his second hat: that of star of social networks.
The 30-something is both a farmer and a YouTuber. Either a « agri-youtubeurre », he slips with a wink. This is the name he chose for his channel on the video platform. Accumulating millions of views, Étienne Fourmont is also in full promotion of his newly published book, Peace & Food (1), where he pursues the same objective as on the screens: to deconstruct received ideas about his profession.
From the barn to the Internet
To understand this astonishing trajectory, we must go back to the origins of its “genuine” occupation: that of cattle breeder. A vocation ? « Not really », he admits, laughing. However, he spent all his childhood on the family farm, inherited from father to son for five generations, located on the border between Sarthe and Mayenne.
His interest is born especially at the time of his orientation, at the end of college. After a baccalaureate at the Le Mans agricultural high school, a BTS, then a two-year trip to New Zealand, his career as a farmer began in 2003 alongside his father, on the 90 ha farm with around a hundred dairy cows. .
But how to explain the choice to combine fields and the Web? The answer is probably on the side of his “trade union family”. Like his ancestors, Étienne joined the Young Farmers, where he quickly rose through the ranks.
He then began to use Twitter, at the time when L214, the association for the protection of animals “regularly attacks (at) occupation. There were a lot of misconceptions going around, messages that horrified me. At first it was a real shock, then anger, he explains, referring to heated confrontations on the network. Then, little by little, I realized that there was a deeper problem, a misunderstanding. There, I said to myself that it was vital to communicate about our profession. »
The challenge of climate change
Étienne Fourmont continues his efforts to be more educational: “I started from the base, explaining what a cow was, how it lives, how milk is made… » Problem: Twitter is quickly becoming too restrictive a medium. At the time, he was already following colleagues on YouTube, “but it was mainly cereal farmers”. So he decided to found his own channel in 2018, posting explanatory videos where he tells about his daily life as a cattle farmer.
Asked about the great challenges of his generation, the farmer has no hesitation: ” Climate change », he replies tit for tat. Aware of “needs for adaptation to evolve its sector towards a more virtuous model”he especially wants to break the received ideas « that farmers are enemies of the environment, villains ready to do anything to produce”.
All while remaining firm on certain subjects, such as organic farming: «We will not be able to do only organic in France, he hammers firmly. We must certainly review the doses of pesticides, reduce our dependence, but it is impossible to say that we will no longer use them. »
Restore the image of the profession
Another battle horse: he wants to rebuild a link with consumers. « We are at a time when money remains the sinews of war. Since the Covid, the war in Ukraine, inflation… all the fine speeches to “buy French” have run out of steam », he regrets, referring to the growing share of food imports in France. “We will have to make efforts and pay the right price if we want to move in the direction of food sovereignty! »
Moving from YouTube to writing, the young breeder is now looking to “to reach another audience, less young than that of social networks”. Here too, the aim is to recall the reality of a “Exciting profession, which is modernizing and has a future. Admittedly, it’s an intense daily life, not always easy, he acknowledges. But that doesn’t have to sound horrible. Me, I love this job! “.