Following the way in which the farmers’ discontent was “appeased,” we felt it was important to take a step back and share a collective opinion piece that appeared in Le Monde on February 5th. This text proposes credible paths for rebuilding our French agricultural landscape, and we are reproducing it here in its entirety. The opinion piece is available and downloadable as a PDF—among other resources—on the AGTER website, here.

*****

At the initiative of AGTER and in connection with reflections carried out within the Land Coalition and the Nourrir Collective, more than 50 actors from the associative and agricultural world and academics signed an opinion piece published in Le Monde on February 5, 2024 in response to the crisis in the agricultural world and the government’s draft agricultural policy law.

The platform:

Agriculture is in crisis. The anger of farmers reveals situations of distress and suffering of diverse and varied origins, as the agricultural world is heterogeneous, whether from the point of view of income, debt, or working conditions.
Faced with these recurring social crises, the government typically responds at the beginning of February with tax measures, reductions in social security contributions and regulations, and support for agricultural prices. While these measures appear to benefit everyone, the largest production units benefit more than the smaller ones; the former then continue to “devour” the latter.
The largest farms are moving towards an agro-industrial model: corporate agriculture that most often favors simplified, standardized, highly mechanized, and automated production systems. This model relies on monoculture, increasingly large plots of land devoid of trees and hedges, and the excessive use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, to the detriment of ecosystems, agricultural and biological diversity, and soil and water quality. It concentrates production in ever-larger buildings and reduces living beings to machines for producing tasteless milk, meat, eggs, or fruits and vegetables with a heavy carbon footprint. It leads to the emergence of agriculture without farmers, benefiting shareholders interested in the profitability of their capital.

Rebuilding the remuneration system

In fact, more and more farms are controlled by non-farming shareholders. Consequently, a growing share of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies, intended for agricultural workers according to European Union regulations, is being distributed to people who are not farmers. This corporate agriculture, primarily export-oriented, is gaining ground worldwide thanks to free trade agreements and is leading to a reduction in the number of agricultural workers, rural exodus, and the impoverishment of rural areas. It concentrates and relocates production to the detriment of family and small-scale farming and food sovereignty, both in the Global North and the Global South. Furthermore, it is developing at the expense of the climate, biodiversity, landscape diversity, and public health.
Given the diversity of agricultural practices, the system for remunerating farmers’ labor must be overhauled to reflect production costs, which vary widely depending on the size of production units and agricultural practices, and to protect them from the various impacts of climate change. For example, per-hectare subsidies should be replaced by subsidies
capped at the asset level; support for organic farming must not only allow for its maintenance, but also its expansion. Such measures would increase the rate of farm succession and contribute to generational renewal, an objective the government proclaims without providing the means to achieve it.
To achieve this generational renewal, a truly effective structural policy must be implemented to direct land towards aspiring farmers and smaller-scale farmers, and towards agroecological practices. Land access, the main obstacle to starting a farm, particularly for those who are not from farming families, must be better regulated. Land allocation must be made to farmers as individuals, regardless of their land access methods or the status of their production units.

Land concentration is underestimated

This revamped policy requires knowledge of production units, which is far from being the case. [In 2022, didn’t the press discover, in the Vienne department, that a single unit of 2,121 hectares comprised 12 “administrative farms”?] ^¹ Even official data underestimates land concentration. A register of production units must be established to distinguish, among their owners, investors who do not participate in agricultural work from genuine farmers.

Generational renewal requires a proactive structural policy

This policy also entails revising the “regional master plans for agricultural holdings.” These plans must prioritize, across the entire territory, farms that create jobs and added value per unit area, that are economical in their use of synthetic inputs, that have diversified production, and that employ agroecological and/or organic farming practices. This regulation would allow for a shift from rhetoric to action, benefiting producers and the entire population, for example, by restoring market gardening and fruit-growing belts around cities, within the framework of local government food projects.
Such regulation requires an operational land market observatory that collects and publishes information on land leases, sales, and shares in agricultural companies. It will also ensure that the procedures for issuing operating permits (which form the basis of structural policy) are more transparent and participatory.
These authorizations must be based on a maximum land area criterion (weighted according to production) per farmer, whether for leasing, purchasing land, or acquiring shares, and on the opinion of departmental and local land commissions. These commissions will be composed of representatives of farmers, local authorities, environmental associations, consumer groups, and citizen associations involved in agriculture and food. This policy goes hand in hand with a recognition of the diversity of support structures available for new farmers.
Successfully managing generational renewal in agriculture and achieving the essential ecological transition requires a reorientation of agricultural policy at both the European and national levels. Only this reorientation will provide lasting solutions to the agricultural crises.

List of initial signatories:
•Bukhari-de-Pontual – Sylvie – CCFD – Catholic Committee against Hunger and for Development – President of CCFD
•Chevassus-au-Louis Bernard – Humanity and Biodiversity – President of Humanity and Biodiversity
•Stéphanie Clément-Grandcourt – Foundation for Nature and Man – Director General of the FNH
•Cochet Hubert – Professor of Comparative Agriculture at AgroParisTech
•Cécile Duflot – Oxfam France – Executive Director of Oxfam France
•Gaiji Khaled – Friends of the Earth – President of Friends of the Earth France
•Gatet Antoine – France Nature Environnement – President of FNE
•Benoît Grimonprez – Professor at the University of Poitiers and researcher in rural and environmental law
•Jean-François Julliard – Greenpeace – Executive Director of Greenpeace France
•Levesque Robert – AGTER – President of AGTER
•Marandola Laurence – Confédération paysanne – National spokesperson for the Confédération paysanne
• Paul Reder – Federation of Associations for the Development of Agricultural and Rural Employment – President of FADEAR
• Alan Testard – The National Federation of Organic Agriculture – National Secretary for Installation and Transfer of the FNAB
• Michael Weber – Federation of Regional Natural Parks of France – President of the Federation of Regional Natural Parks of France

Full list of signatories:
•Apollin Frédéric – AVSF Agronomists and Veterinarians Without Borders – Director General of AVSF
•Arnaud Luc – GRET – Director General of GRET
•Auzeral Bertrand – Bee Friendly – President of Bee Friendly and professional beekeeper
•Azan Jean – Friends of the Peasant Confederation – Representative of the Friends of the Peasant Confederation
• Jean-Luc Bausson – Christians in the Rural World – Co-president of Christians in the Rural World
•Bernard Geneviève – Terre de Liens – President of the Terre de Liens National Federation
•Evelyne Boulogne – MIRAMAP Inter-regional Movement of AMAPs – Administrator and spokesperson for MIRAMAP
•Christian Castellanet – AGTER/GRET – Former scientific director of GRET and member of AGTER
•Chevalier Margot – Christians in the Rural World – Co-president of Christians in the Rural World
• André Cicolella – Environment and Health Network – President of the Environment and Health Network
• Stéphanie Clément-Grandcourt – Foundation for Nature and Man – Director General of the Foundation for Nature and Man
•Sarah Cohen – ISF Agrista – Co-president of ISF Agrista and agricultural engineer
•Jean-Louis Couture – Agro-economist, international expert in resource management and evaluator of European and AFD projects
•Yvon Cras – Action Aid – People in Solidarity – Action Aid Delegate
•David Vincent – Max Havelaar France – President of Max Havelaar France
• Armelle de Saint Sauveur – Slow Food France – Member of the Slow Food France Biodiversity Action Committee
•Froitier Lucile – WWOOF World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms – President of WWOOF and farm worker
•Quentin Ghesquière – Oxfam France – Food Security Campaign and Advocacy Officer at Oxfam France
• Jacques Godard – SOL Agroecological and Solidarity Alternatives – Co-president of SOL
•Philippe Hirou – Afac-Agroforestry – President of Afac-Agroforestry
•Marie-Jeanne Husset – Act for the Environment – President of Act for the Environment
• Julien Kieffer – RENETA National Network of Agricultural Test Sites – Co-president of RENETA
•Kien Julien – Bio Consom’acteurs – President of Bio Consom’acteurs
•Largeaud Amandine – RENETA National Network of Agricultural Test Sites – Co-president of RENETA
• Nadine Lauverjat – Generations Futures – General Delegate of Generations Futures
•Lucie Leloup – Les Pieds dans le Plat Collective – Co-president of the Les Pieds dans le Plat Collective – Daughter of an organic farmer
•Christophe Lépine – FCEN (Federation of Conservatories of Natural Areas) – President of the FCEN
•Leras Gérard – Former Vice-President of the Rhône-Alpes Region
• Patrick Lespagnol – MABD (Movement for Biodynamic Agriculture) – President of the Movement for Biodynamic Agriculture
•Levard Laurent – Agricultural Economist
• Jacques Loyat – Honorary General Engineer of Rural Engineering, Water and Forestry
Romain Melot – Research Director at INRAE
•Hervé Mouchard – Les Pieds dans le Plat Collective – Co-president of the Les Pieds dans le Plat Collective – Son of organic farmers
•Cécile Muret – Confédération paysanne – Head of the land commission of the Confédération paysanne
• Coline Perrin – Research Director in Geography at INRAE
•Alice Picard – Attac France – Spokesperson for Attac France
• Christian Pons – UNAF (National Union of French Beekeeping) – President of UNAF
• Vincent Rousselet – Organic Fair Trade in France – Director of Organic Fair Trade in France
• Manon Rousselot-Pailley – MRJC (Rural Movement of Christian Youth) – President of the MRJC
• Yvan Savy – CIWF – Director of CIWF France
• Anne-Françoise Taisne – CFSI (French Committee for International Solidarity) – General Delegate of the French Committee for International Solidarity
• Boris Tavernier – Bulk Towards a Joint Purchasing Network – General Delegate of Bulk
• Alan Testard – FNAB (National Federation of Organic Agriculture) – National Secretary for Installation and Transfer of Farms at FNAB and Professional Advisor in charge of land
•José Tissier – Fair Trade France – President of Fair Trade France
•Vergati Samanta – Altrimenti – Founder and General Director of Altrimenti
•Françoise Vernet – Terre & Humanisme – President of Terre & Humanisme
•Nicolas Verzotti – Civam Network – Vice-President of the Civam Network and market gardener in the Vaucluse
•Zuccolo Ghislain – Welfarm – Managing Director of Welfarm

Press contact:
06 19 81 26 61 – pierre-andre.duffrene@agter.org Pierre-André Duffrène – Land Affairs Officer France/Europe

To learn more:

• Major trends in French agriculture, Robert Levesque, AGTER, 2023 http://agter.asso.fr/article1785_fr.html
• Factors influencing the price of agricultural land – Robert Levesque, aGter, 2023 http://agter.asso.fr/article1785_fr.html
• Report: Agricultural land in the peri-urban area of ​​the Triangle de Gonesse https://carmapaysdefrance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Etude_fonciere-CARMA-4p-web.pdf
• A series of investigations by Splann! on land and agricultural issues in Brittany https://splann.org/enquete/foncier-agricole/
• Nourrir Collective: Securing the future of our agriculture and food https://collectifnourrir.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Vision-du-Collectif-Nourrir-PLOAA-112023.pdf

This article, along with the downloadable PDF version – among other resources – can be found on the AGTER website, here.

1. This sentence was removed from the opinion piece published by Le Monde but appears in the version approved by the signatories. ↩︎