the essential
The Auscitaine bookstore Les Petits Papiers welcomes journalist Amélie Poinssot this Tuesday, November 5. The author comes to present her latest book, “Who will feed us?”, in which she discusses the future of agriculture and the new profiles that integrate the agricultural environment.
The decline has been continuous for 50 years: in 1970, France had more than 1.5 million agricultural operations. In 2020, this figure rose to nearly 390,000 and could only be 275,000 in 2035 (according to INSEE data and forecasts, if retirements are not replaced). A demographic decline in the agricultural world which is often accompanied by a feeling of isolation from the rest of society, which Amélie Poinssot points out in her investigative book “Who will feed us? At the heart of the ecological emergency, the peasant revival”, released on February 7 by Actes Sud. The Médiapart journalist, specializing in agricultural issues, shows the hope that the installation of people, often not from the agricultural world, represents for the future of the profession. Before coming to the Les Petits Papiers bookstore in Auch, this Tuesday, November 5 at 7 p.m., the author presents these new farmers “who are knocking at the door”.
During your investigation, were you able to identify specific profiles for these people not from the agricultural world (Nima)?
There has not yet been a sociological study carried out on these different populations, but I went into the field, in Aveyron and Normandy for example, and I also went to a Professional Certificate in Agricultural Business Manager (BP REA). I was able to identify three main categories. First of all, people who know, from high school or orientation, that they want to go into the agricultural world. Even if they do not come from this environment, they have often been in contact with it. Then, there is another category of people, who branch off after 10 or 15 years of work: it is a fairly politicized category which is hit by the ecological and climate crisis and which finds itself in professions where it loses meaning. Finally, there are people who branch off later, around their forties. In the testimonies collected, many of these reconversions are linked to Covid. These are people who have acquired financial comfort and started a family and they arrive at a stage in their lives where there is a search for meaning and an economic foundation that allows them to follow a new path. But, be careful, the Nima are not a movement of people from privileged social classes.
Which sectors are they turning to?
The main sectors that attract, and there is also a bit of a fad, are market gardening, the profession of peasant baker or even aromatic plants. But breeding also attracts, despite cattle which have a big problem for succession. In sheep and goats, the replacement rate is 100%. Finally, goats often attract many more women compared to other breeding sectors.
How are these Nima received in the agricultural world?
Locally, they are well received. Farmers from more established generations are very happy to see the next generation arriving, especially when they are working. And she works hard, especially the first three years. It's a crazy job to be able to start farming. In general, there is mutual assistance. But to get there, the person settling in has already gone through quite a few steps.
In your book, you describe the difficulties encountered by the Nima in settling down.
All the stages that depend on agricultural and para-agricultural organizations are not welcoming enough for these people. When you are Nima, you start with an initial handicap: it is much more difficult to convince people of the solidity and interest of your project than for people in the field. Especially when we are in a somewhat alternative model: the Nima often turn towards organic, towards the production of added value, towards virtuous things and not towards the productivist model. It was only very recently that the FNSEA became aware of the importance of this population. Traditionally, for training, the organizations that support them are associations, such as Adear, often affiliated with the Confédération paysanne. For access to land, not to mention prices, when there are two competing files before a Safer for the allocation of agricultural land, still too often, it is the file of the farmer already in place which will be privileged rather than that of a new person who is not from the area or the environment.
These operations are rather recent but can we already have a perspective on their sustainability?
The book follows the progression: the desire to settle down, the search for a farm… At the end of the book, I go to visit goat and sheep breeders in Larzac in Aveyron who have been established for several years. They are doing very well economically: they add value, they add value to all animal products and they maintain control of the marketing circuit. It is this model that attracts the Nima the most and they are viable farms. The productivist model which depends on large-scale distribution is not necessarily desirable, especially when we see events like Lactalis which suspends its tours and leaves the milkmen without a solution. There is no price control when you depend on a long circuit. Afterwards, these are recent farms, we should redo the book in 10 years.
What feedback have you received from the field?
I haven't had much feedback from the unions. But everywhere I go to present the book, already in around thirty agricultural territories, I have a very good reception and good feedback from the people I have had testify. These are lives that I tell, but also very strong commitments, which impact personal life but also that of those around me. It's not necessarily easy to transcribe all of this.
