The Missing Generation of Organic Farmers
There is a missing organic generation of farmers. I was at the Fete Paysanne de l”Aude selling our herbs, meeting organic farming friends from around the Department and slowly sweating to death in my mask when it struck me their is a whole missing generation of organic farmers. When you do a stand you have a lot of time to look at passing folk and talk, selling plants you do a lot of talking.
Selling plants is not like selling carrots, everyone wants advice whether they buy something or not. I mean you would not go up to a producer selling carrots and ask a question about the best way to cook lamb but nobody bats an eye lid at asking me about the best way to control ivy on the side of a house or how to prune a lemon tree. It can be a pain if you are busy but most of the time it pays off in the long run, people get to know you and return when they actually want herbs to plant. It also means you get to talk to a lot of people, between that and all the organic festivals and Confederation paysanne union stuff in the last ten years I know a fair few of the clients and most of the organic farmers and transformers in the Aude. By the way I only have a vague idea about controlling ivy and absolument no clue on pruning lemon trees.
I don’t know why but the age difference of the organic farmers really struck me. The morning of the Fete Paysanne was frequented by was the stalwarts of the organic movement, the ’68ers, who inspired by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) and the Club of Rome”s Report, “The Limits of Growth” (1972), and fuelled by Maoism or New Age Neo Ruralism started the modern organic farming movement. From noon onwards it was increasing the 20-40 year old, the new generation as it were who are building on the foundations put in place by the ’68ers and taking organic farming in the Aude up to another level. There was a hole missing organic generation of farmers between 40 and 60.
It is true that in the last 50 years the organic farming and retailing sector has transformed radically, I did some research into this when I wrote the post Origins of Organic Agriculture 3.0 but that transformation is predominantly about the market structure of organic consumption and retailing more than organic farming. Yes it has had a huge impact on the practices of organic primary production, with the huge plastic fields of poly tunnels of Southern Spain, the wheat fields of Turkmenistan, and the heated green houses of Brittany. More locally a whole swath of independent vignerons who’s future was in the balance converted to organic production as way to add value to their produce, some out of genuine conviction others to stave off extinction.
In the Aude two organic farming sectors have embraced the Organic 2.0 model of large scale organic production, wine and cereals. For example Gerard Bertrand is the largest organic wine producer/negociant in the Aude with 60;000 hectares of organic grapes. Incidentally he is one one of two agricultural business who receive over a million euros from the Common Agricultural Programme, the other is the cereal Co op in Castelnaudry. But he is a very rare example, the vast majority of Audois organic farmers operate on a much smaller scale, and in much more diversified sectors from bee keepers to shepherds, market gardeners to cheese makers, even the odd organic herb grower.
However I don’t think the missing organic generation has to do with the transformation of organic from the hippy ghetto to Tesco aisles. I also don’t think it is unique to the organic sector. It is a Northern European phenomena that has touched all aspects of the framing sector. In the 1950s there was just over 2,000,000 farms in France, 35% of the population worked in the agricultural sector by the early 1980’s this had halved ; now there is less than 500,000 employing 3.3% of the population.
The collapsing farm gate prices from the 1980’s onwards forced farmers to either massively increase production, struggle on under mounting burdens of debt, or exit the sector all together. I wrote about this in the pig sector see The Failing Industrialisation of French Pig Farming. A whole generation simply got out of farming all together, farms were consolidated as the falling rate of profit drove farmers to expand or die. Sons and daughters did not take over the farm instead moving to the urban centres to seek lore stable and lucrative employment.
A whole generation of farmers, and their children simply left the sector. It is not just a case of a missing generation of organic farmers, there is a missing generation of farmers point finale.
However the rise of organic consumption has created a new premium market sector that has opened a window from a new generation to re-enter the agricultural sector.
The beauty of organic small scale farming is that it does not necessarily need the huge inputs of capital that industrial farming requires. One hectare of land with access to water is sufficient for a market gardener; small scale organic herds of animals require more land but hillside farm land is readably available in the Aude, apiculture, essential oil, fruit trees and bushes are all low cost start ups.
The fore runner to the Confederation paysanne was Adrea ,L’Association pour le Développement de l’Emploi Agricole et Rural, set up in 1989, it advises and supports new agricultural start ups. The Chambre d’Agriculture also has a similar organisation. There is a surprising amount of aide and tax breaks, particularly for young people moving into farming. We also have a Lycree Agricole, the LEGTA Charlemagne in Carcassonne which runs a wide range of professional training courses, they have poles in Narbonne, Limoux and Castelnaudry.
The Aude has the basic infrastructure to offer support to new farmers, we also have in the more forgotten corners of the Aude very cheap land and buildings, and often Mayors who will do all they can to welcome young people and their families to their communes.
I was talking to caroline when I got back and she was telling me about her new organic market in Narbonne. Because of COVID 19 the organic market has been moved from it(s little square hidden away in the outskirts of Narbonne to a much more central location between the Canal de Robine and Les Halles. Not only it is attracting many new clients but the 15 local producers and resellers that were the core of the market have now grown to 22 with more lining up to arrive. The newcomers are young new producers who could not get into the limited space in the previous location.
That is what I realised I was seeing at the Fete paysanne, a whole new generation of small organic farmers to take forward organic agriculture in the Aude. A new generation not trapped in the hippy organic ghetto but who had the energy and ideas to create a small farmers reversal of the rural desertification that has plagued the Aude since the 1950s.
