“When a farm disappears, no one wins”

The rooster crowing loudly, the smells, the presence of flies… There are increasing calls against farmers from their neighbors. Why is cohabitation with agriculture in rural areas more difficult today than yesterday?

Yesterday, a large part of the French population was rural or came from rural areas; the realities of the agricultural world were therefore known. Today, people live in the city and come to the countryside on weekends because they find it beautiful. Or they decide to settle there because real estate is more accessible there. But for them, it is a setting, with an idealized nature. They don’t know that behind the Scottish fabric of the fields, the airy forests with beautiful paths, the flowery meadows, and even the paths and streams, there is the work of farmers. Many have retained a bucolic vision of the farms of yesteryear and no longer know all the constraints necessary today for the agricultural operation to be viable and within standards. They don’t know the reality of infestations.

A law aimed at limiting disputes between neo-rurals and farmers was promulgated in April 2024. But these are the behaviors that must change: I advocate the establishment of an “agricultural civic service”, so that everyone, from teachers to elected officials, passing young people who want to engage in noble battles, understand what it means today to feed their fellow citizens, reconciling quantity, quality, profitability, and of course, respect for nature.

Isn’t Covid, which has accentuated an urban exodus, responsible for this state of affairs?

The pandemic, with the confinements, created a desire for a campaign. For two years, short circuits and farm stores worked well. There was a craze for organic. But all this did not last because of the surge in prices, which is pushing many families towards discount food. Ultimately, the urban exodus turned out to be limited: neo-rural residents are faced with poor Internet connections, the length of journeys, and the lack of services.

The peri-urban area has become denser and has become a space of tension, where the presence of farms is not necessarily well perceived, even when the farmer is organic, even when he was there before the subdivision. The countryside, like the forest, have become recreational spaces where nature is supposed to belong to everyone, which is false. Farmers suffer from illegal dumping of garbage and an aggressive attitude from certain walkers, who believe they know better what is good for nature.

The only way out of this impasse is exchange, understanding, dialogue”

Lot-et-Garonne is a very agricultural department, marked by a very strong union presence. How can we reconcile, in this department, new residential desires and agricultural activities?

There is a paradox in Lot-et-Garonne, which is truly the garden of France, with many organic farms, varied and quality productions that urban dwellers adore, such as strawberries, plums, hazelnuts. , good wines, demanding breeding. So everything should go well. But it’s the opposite: the agricultural world is suffering, with revenues at half mast, difficulties in accessing irrigation, which is nevertheless essential for fruits and vegetables, breeding, seeds, with increasingly summers. drier and warmer.

The ban on treatment products, essential in the face of insect pressure, and which the rest of Europe uses, creates unfair imports, distortions of competition, for stone fruits, strawberries, hazelnuts, putting endangering entire sectors, and therefore the wealth, landscapes and jobs that go with them. When a farm disappears, no one gains: it is fallow land that sets in, the landscapes close up, the bush makes it easier for fires to start. The only way out of this impasse is through exchange, understanding and dialogue. What I call the 5 R’s: meeting, respect (for agricultural work), recognition (for efforts undertaken to produce more and more green), reconciliation, and of course, dignified remuneration.

Farmers carry out a profession of general interest, we should make maintaining viable and efficient farms a priority”

You mention the priority of “nurturing necessity” in several of your works. Can you expand?

We must not believe that hunger is a thing of the past. Older people still remember that they tightened their belts during the Second World War and after, but this reality has not disappeared: two billion people live in food insecurity, including in Europe. In France, more than 9 million people are below the poverty line. Food relief organizations are overwhelmed by demands, and the arrival of winter will exacerbate the often silent distress.

Supporting strong, efficient agriculture, through a wide diversity of models that make our country rich, is a necessity, not only moral, but strategic. Russia, America, China know that the food weapon (and energy because the two go hand in hand) always drives geopolitics. France still has the chance to be a great agricultural power, but it continues to decline. Its producers are getting discouraged.

An example: corn, to which I devoted a book because we love to hate this cereal, even though it is the first in the world, for humanity and for the planet. Europe is, with China, the world’s leading importer. While France remains the leading seed exporting country in the world, seed growers can no longer cope with all the constraints. Result: we went from 100,000 hectares of corn seeds to 80,000 hectares. Tomorrow, will we depend on the Russian ogre or Uncle Sam to feed us? Farmers carry out a profession of general interest, we should make maintaining viable and efficient farms a priority!