Lhe “largest farm in France” has just opened its doors as it does every year in Paris. A popular and prized event, the Salon de l’agriculture feeds a national imagination which nevertheless continues to move away from a reality whose contours are increasingly uncertain. It primarily concerns the farmers themselves. Half a century after the end of a peasant civilization predicted by the sociologist Henri Mendras, French agriculture is beginning a new mutation, marked by the contraction of the model of family farming transmitted from generation to generation. The old scheme involving a couple already concerns only 19% of farmers, according to INSEE.
In the next ten years, approximately 200,000 of the 398,000 heads of farms will retire, the majority of them without an assured succession. They will be replaced by other modes of production, linked to the development of genuine agricultural enterprises and the use of subcontracting.
This development calls into question the role of farmers as central actors in rural areas, as noted by sociologists Bertrand Hervieu and François Purseigle, whose latest book, published in 2022, provocatively announces “an agriculture without farmers “. Now marginalized, including at the municipal level, which was their bastion for a long time, they are undergoing an unprecedented questioning of their practices.
More climatic hazards
Emerging conflicts around the management of water resources are only the latest examples of an impasse. It opposes an agrarian corporatism, all the more conservative as it is on the defensive, to the temptations of diktats from new actors who superbly deny the complexity of the essential transition towards sustainable and responsible agriculture. That towards which the European Union wants to go with the so-called “farm to fork” strategy (Farm to fork), which is one of the elements of its Green Pact.
This transition is part of a complex equation. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the world’s breadbaskets, has highlighted the contradictory injunctions addressed to farmers. The latter are summoned both to produce better, including if this leads to a drop in production, while guaranteeing food sovereignty that has already been undermined. This is particularly the case in France for chicken produced at low cost, of which 45% of consumption is imported.
Tensions around agriculture can appear as desperate as they are sterile. However, a few truths stand out. The transition to agroecology is no longer a matter of choice. The leveling off of wheat yields which, according to INRAE, stems from ever-increasing climatic hazards bears witness to this. Better consideration of the state of the soil, more attentive care given to biodiversity are becoming imperatives for a more resistant agriculture.
These objectives imply vigilance in terms of commercial treaties. The ambition of sustainability within European borders makes no sense if it accommodates imports produced according to inferior environmental standards. The transition also requires farmers to earn better incomes, to enable them to adapt when they are often the weakest link in the food value chain. Farmers need a national pact, not a religious war.