“We have to pay the farmers better”

During a large recent survey, your association questioned more than 7,700 farmers about their way of considering the transition to low carbon agriculture. What do they answer?

The vast majority – 87 % of them – says they are ready to engage or accelerate the environmental transition of their farm, provided that the main financial brakes are lifted. In particular, they want to be remunerated for the environmental services they render and protected against international competition deemed unfair. Only 7 % of respondents declare that they do not want to engage in the transition. This goes against certain received ideas on the peasant world …

They are also very worried about the consequences of climate change …

Yes, this reality represents, for 86 % of them, the main risk weighing on the viability of their exploitation. More than 70 % also says they are concerned about the increase in the price of energy and their dependence on fossil fuels.

What are the main lines of the decarbonation scenario that you offer by 2050?

Today, agriculture has produced a lot, to the detriment of biodiversity, climate and soil health. It also consumes fossil energy in large quantities, from fields to the plate.

Agriculture better suited to the climate of 2050 and the scarcity of oil will be more diverse agriculture in regions: livestock must not remain confined to certain territories, such as Brittany, but be more diffuse to allow cultures to be fertilized again with organic fertilizers.

Our scenario plans to replace, by 2050, 70 % of synthetic fertilizers (manufactured with gas, etc.) with organic alternatives and by the culture of legumes.

And the livestock?

It should also be less provided. But, surprised, our scenario makes it lower less quickly than the reduction observed currently in France, because it is essential to keep the permanent meadows (grazed by livestock) in order to store carbon.

To increase this essential storage, it would also be necessary to multiply by ten the areas grown in agroforestry by 2050. Finally, we need to produce food for farming locally, instead of importing them.

Will this development allow a more remunerative income for farmers?

In this report, we first asked ourselves the question of physical levers to activate to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of agriculture and increase its energy autonomy. It’s vital for this sector. If the French are ready to go in this direction, it is sure that it will cost the nation more.

It should be seen indeed that during the past century, the community has considerably paid for its diet than before the arrival of fossil fuels. The French devote an average of 15 % of their budget to feed. And out of these 15 %, only 7 % go in the pocket of farmers.

Where is the rest?

Towards the food industry, packaging, carriers, store managers, bankers … Ultimately, French households only devote 1 % of their budget to directly pay agricultural activity (without taking into account public subsidies paid via tax, editor’s note). There are therefore room for maneuver to increase production costs. Devining 2 % of our budget to farmers would change an agricultural model out of breath.

Reconciling ecology and remunerative prices is not possible in current conditions?

No, because farmers are caught in a system where global incentive is to produce the cheapest possible. Only a small part of them, in organic for example, escapes this. From the moment you are subject to such an injunction, it is not easy to be virtuous on the environmental level.

The company’s report with farmers must change. We are starting to see some measures at the level of the common agricultural policy to reconcile economic and environmental imperatives; But these initiatives are far too marginal with regard to the actions to be taken to make agriculture more resilient in the face of energy and climatic shocks.

So should we prepare to pay for our diet more?

It all depends on what we buy. Do you know which products are most popular in supermarkets today? Bottle water that costs 500 times more than tap water, pastis, Nutella jar and coca. If we turn to best quality raw products to cook rather than transformed industrial products, we do not necessarily strike our budget at the end of the month. The French spend well 29 billion euros each year in cigarettes, compared to only 20 billion to buy vegetables.

The component “” ecology »» The 2025 budget was reduced by 14 % compared to last year, while many instances alert on the need to increase public investments. Don’t you live it as a failure?

Unfortunately, this is not a surprise. I have been one of those who have said for a long time that the transition will not be a path of roses and that we will have to face an increasing disorder.

For what? Because almost all people have still not understood that the economy depended on resources and energy. In a world where access to these is reduced, the economy is harder. We must accept not to sacrifice the long -term issues.

Where are the main obstacles to taking these challenges into account?

Among the current winners of the system who do not want to lose their place. I am thinking of companies and sectors in the agrifood sector, of course, but not only.

We all have our share individually. We find very friendly to feed for cheap, and therefore to have something to pay for electronic devices, cars, trips. Each of us is a fabric of contradictions. But we cannot have more virtuous agriculture without increasing the price of agricultural foodstuffs. This awareness is necessary.

Polytechnician and training engineer, you are one of the rare personalities listened to on climate change by both politicians and the general public. How do you plan to weigh on the transformation of French agriculture?

In November 2024, after fourteen months of work, The Shift Project published this report “for low carbon, resilient and prosperous agriculture”, which we hope will have an echo over time. To do this, it is necessary to continue to speak to those responsible for all stripes … and create allies, as we have started to do as part of the development of this study, for which nearly 300 interlocutors in the sector were solicited. They want to know the future.

To convince is a long -term job. A major change like the one waiting for the agricultural world will take one to two generations.

The subject of the environment no longer seems a priority in the political world. Are you worried?

I am not convinced that he is in disrepair. You have to be wary of the foam of the waves. Admittedly, an increasing number of voices are rising in the political world to say that it is necessary to do less. But does that basically mean that the opinion of the population has changed? No. I think the French remain very concerned with the challenges of the ecological transition.

Many fans follow you on social networks, in addition to having become the main character of a comic strip (The endless world). How do you live this notoriety?

I have a normal life, I get up, I go to bed, I take the metro. From time to time, someone greets me saying thank you. It is not monstrously intrusive!