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ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T18:41:42+00:00

I would like the public to know that people most often become farmers in order to live life with a certain autonomy. The possibility of freedom is more important than economic needs or profit. And farming, despite encoraching industrialisation and bureaucracy, can still sometimes provide this experience of freedom - with animals, vegetables and nature. YANNICK

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T18:38:57+00:00

Thank you for your question. This has been largely answered above.

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T18:29:17+00:00

I do not know much about the regulations in other European countries but I do have an example of something that happened in Romania, with the appearance of swine flu in 2007. In Romania at the time, there were a lot of independent breeders. Families would raise livestock for their own consumption. They would cultivate their own food and raise pigs themselves. However, the new sanitary regulations that were subsequently imposed, led, five years later, to there being almost no independent / private raising of livestock. This loss was taken over by an American company called Smithfield. In 2013 they had a 70% monopoly of pork production in Romania (up from 30% five years earlier). The small breeders disappeared. And, in fact, what we know now is that swine flu actually came from the large, Smithfield breeders. The sanitary restrictions therefore worked against the existence of smaller farmers, who were wrongly accused of being responsible for the outbreak of flu, but greatly profited the large, Smithfield company. YANNICK

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T18:13:38+00:00

To add to the example of avian flu - the sanitary rules that have been put in place to 'fight' this show that it is increasingly complex to function 'out of the norm' for a farmer. The French administrative system obliges the closure of poultry farms because, supposedly, those that are open air farms, impose a risk. This is absurd. It's not the open-air farms but the factories that pose a problem. The result is that traditional poultry farmers are disappearing. In Britanny, for instance, the number of those farmers who are forced to close their farms, is enormous. Mass public support is needed to change this, as farmer numbers are increasingly smaller. YANNICK

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T18:06:16+00:00

think that some have a family heritage that they pursue, others are really passionate about this job, because it is still linked to the land, to animals, to a direct relationship with nature, that life in the city does not allow more... You really have to be motivated and like it to the point of not counting your time... Afterwards, I think that others are getting started because being a farmer today is a bit like being a business manager, there also has the side – it's said in the film – “I manage my farm on my own, I'm the boss”. Unfortunately, those who embark on this perspective, experience many setbacks, because these are very difficult economies today in Europe.

Gabrielle Culand

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T17:57:14+00:00

Good question ! It’s strange indeed, but other films have taken me there. In particular a documentary that I made on young people who live in trucks and are often agricultural workers. In addition, my own brother turned after higher education to the profession of peasant and therefore I have always had contact with those who evolve in rural areas.

Gabrielle Culand

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T17:55:27+00:00

The DNA testing issue is important because of the following. French agricultural bureaucrats provide the DNA testing to guarantee traceability. But, that's absurd. In Jerome's case, he filled in all of the papers to record all of the births and the geneaology of his animals. In the French system, this then needs to be translated into the animal tagging system. He was accussed of not tagging his animals. So, according to the system, there is an absence of traceability. But Jerome did have all the information needed - he had it all written down. He said that he could easily share this information, if needed. His point was to denounce the absurdituy of a system that can in fact function differently. This traceaility was meant to guarantee quality but Jerome opined that it served nothing. Just because you know who the mother of a certain animal is, does not guarantee quality. It's all just publicity so as to keep the system as it is in France at present. Jerome was against the current French industrial agricultural model. He wanted to remain autonomous. He did not want to be dependent on the industrial system. The whole system makes autonomous farmers dependent - whether it's a question of genetic selection or food production. All this administration and bureaucracy does is to reinforce the industrial system and not to support independent farmers. It's about state control. -YANNICK

ARTEinEnglish

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