We all have an artisan of the earth among our loved ones. Permanently connected to his cows, his fields and his customers. As soon as he opens his eyes, without downtime, he has the concern to deal with the weather. He is in contact with the living, each change in temperature, each millimeter of rain will impact his harvest. This permanent connection with nature generates a lot of respect from those around him. Despite the determination of some journalists to tarnish the image of a nurturing profession, public opinion is sympathetic.

So why do peasants commit suicide?

I set up as a young winegrower in 2013. Since 2019, I have been doing market gardening. And this year, I got into cattle and sheep farming. My job is beautiful because I am in direct living contact, but it is a daily struggle with paperwork. Unfortunately, we do not put enough emphasis on this issue, which plagues our profession. I would like us to realize that it is the administrations and the industrialists who have killed an agricultural model which maintained life in our countryside, which allowed us to have local, healthy and sustainable food.

MSA, DIRECCTE, DRAAF, DDT, DRFIP, FAM, INAO, FNSEA, DREAL, SIQOCERT, France Agrimer, Chamber of Agriculture, Chamber of Commerce, local authorities. Have you ever had to deal with these administrations? Remember the 12 labors of Asterix and Obelix. This is the daily life of any peasant today. In agronomy, we no longer learn to work with living organisms! We learn to respect standards, to produce in a standardized way so that it fits into the boxes of the administrations.

In 1950, agriculture employed 7 million people and 45% of French people lived in the countryside. Today, French agriculture employs 750,000 people and spends more and more fossil energy to produce at an equivalent yield.

These administrations led the consolidation of our countryside.

It was their maneuvers that resulted in the destruction of the bocage landscapes.

It was their maneuvers that led to the industrialization of crops and the use of pesticides.

Because of these maneuvers, biodiversity has never been so low. Dear journalists, rather than going into the field to denounce good, better or bad practices, why don't you denounce more this agricultural cancer that is killing our farmers?

These people are never in the field. When there are technical follow-ups to be done, they recruit interns to do the work. These administrations make us fill out paper forms that never correspond to the situation. You then have to spend several months trying to call a switchboard open from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. to update the form. We often come across a person who, in addition to not being friendly, is rarely of much help and bogs down the procedures. These administrations have no agronomic skills or long-term vision. Their only concern is respecting their procedure dating from the 70s.

Our administrations are so convinced of their benefits that they always have a solution. They begin by assuring us that they are aware of our problems. This then leads to the creation of a new administration. So we have new forms to fill out to receive new aid. The problem being that it is not the administrations that generate the money distributed but those who need it.

Rather than wasting our time, rather than creating useless administrations, rather than taking our money, wouldn't you like to leave us to fend for ourselves?

Stop giving us aid to invest in equipment that is harmful to the environment

Stop forcing us to use seeds that you can tax as much as possible.

Stop taxing salaries at twice the amount received by the employee.

You think we're too stupid to run our farms? Yet it was you who transformed our farms into veritable sovkhozes. Offer us real training in agronomy. It is only since this year that you have understood that it is not consistent that a seller of pesticides also faces advice. In any case, on the ground, this reform has not changed anything!

It is also these administrations that divide the profession. Agriculture has never been so standardized. Each initiative taken will be the subject of suspicion and non-compliance with the rules. "It's not up to standard." How many times a day do we hear this summons?

It is impossible to consider attacking one of them because all the procedures and controls that these administrations could trigger in your farm would make it sink instantly. If you don't believe what I just wrote, I invite you to watch the film directed by Édouard Bergeon “In the name of the earth”. Unfortunately, this is not fiction. I would also be delighted to share a day with you to go around the administrations as well as all the files we have in progress on the farm.

Armand Heitz

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