He was one of the leading candidates for season 6 of Love is in the meadow (M6). Jean-Michel, a former dairy cow breeder, lifted the veil on the dark thoughts that crossed him because of difficulties related to his profession.
Twelve years after his participation in season 6 of Love is in the meadowJean-Michel, then a dairy cow breeder, reappeared on the small screen. The TFX channel again made it pass in front of the camera, on the occasion of the emission What have they become ? whose last episode was broadcast this Friday, August 25. After his passage in the telecrochet animated by Karine Le Marchand, Jean-Michel has come a long way. He notably left the world of agriculture and moved. The 49-year-old, still single, reflected on his difficult journey after filming the show.
In 2014, Jean-Michel’s farm was no longer profitable: he is forced to put it into compulsory liquidation. Powerless, he witnesses the seizure of his cows by bailiffs. The former farmer is then crossed by suicidal thoughts : “I almost hanged myself. There is an attic under the roof of my old farmhouse, I had put a rope, ready to hang myself“, he explains to TFX. He continues his chilling testimony: “I had put a paper to the postwoman that I would be hanged there. And then I didn’t, I said to myself: ‘I will see if my life will be better’.“ After turning the page, he chained several jobs: cowherd, garbage collector, then manager of a recycling center, he now takes care of the maintenance of the surroundings of the railways. But he has not completely left the world of agricultureand raises chickens in the garden of his new house: “I still have my soul in it. I have my chickens, and there, this year, I have just raised dwarf rabbits“he describes.
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An ex-candidate of “Love is in the meadow” has ended his life
Jean-Michel’s testimony painfully echoes the experience of farmers. The number of suicides in the profession is alarming. The Senate considered the subject in 2021, based on a study by Public Health France which indicates that a farmer commits suicide every two days in France (300 people in two years). Another from the MSA, conducted in 2019 using data from 2015, reports two suicides a day (605 people). On June 26, 2022, another contestant from season 6 of Love is in the meadow, Jean-Claude Joly, had ended his life. Upset, Karine Le Marchand confided in TV 7 days : “He was really one of those I really liked. I had had him on the phone a month before. […] Faced with suicide, we have no say. But we cannot remain indifferent to this kind of injusticethe fact that we demand a lot from them, without offering them much in return.”
THE 3114, the national suicide prevention number, responds to the immediate needs of people seeking help. It is free, confidential and accessible 7 days a week and 24 hours a day.
Journalist
Passionate about writing, Floréane is interested in a wide variety of subjects. When she’s not writing about current events, the environment or gender issues, she takes refuge under a blanket…