Earthenware pitchers bearing the image of The Angelusfrom Millet, which can still be found in flea markets, timeless Martine on the farm, the imagery around the peasantry has changed less than the real world. City dwellers subjected to speed, noise and excesses are opposed to the dream of a calm and nurturing land, linked to family values and a moral tradition. It doesn’t matter that the farmer has a pace of work as frenetic as the senior executive, that he produces goods in quantities no less industrial than the worker, and finally that he is capable of all kinds of pranks. The comforting myth of the picture-wise peasant is decidedly tenacious.
“If farmers respect the rules of the Republic, and they do, they are patriots”, declared Gérald Darmanin on the set of TF1, on January 25, a few days after the start of the mobilization aimed at making the profession’s unease heard. The Minister of the Interior also flattered the relationship to the work of these women and men “who work hard to feed the French”when the Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti describes them as “responsible people” (Franceinfo, January 31).
In essence, the comments drew the charming portrait of a respectable worker, a citizen loyal to the nation, who spares no effort. A table which echoes the positive view that public opinion has on this profession. According to an Elabe survey for BFM-TV, 87% of French people express their support or sympathy for this mobilization. And 92% of respondents say they have a good image of farmers.
The attachment to the figure of the peasant is thus manifest, while farmers are becoming increasingly rare. France actually has fewer than 390,000 farmers, when there were 6 million in the 1940s, and still nearly 4 million in the 1960s.
“Need a return to the roots of the country”
Furthermore, even within rural areas, “operating farmers represent less than 6% of assets, according to the 2020 census, and only 1.34% throughout France”reports sociologist Nicolas Renahy, research director at the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE). “They have long been much less numerous than the workers”, he specifies. Paradoxically, they are also much more visible, celebrated each year on the occasion of the Agricultural Show which, in addition to attracting crowds, has become an essential ritual of political life.
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