Last Saturday, the Paris Agricultural Show opened its doors and Ferme France is exhibiting there for everyone's enjoyment!
To be honest, not all of them unfortunately in this period of “Agribashing”…
Of course, the glass is still half empty, and fighting to change post-war practices is always a commitment. But what a long way we've come since the first organic stand appeared at the Paris Agricultural Show in 1970 !
A visit to the Agence Bio stand (Pavilion 4 - Stand B010) is enough to demonstrate the sector's dynamism. The figures speak for themselves: the area of French agricultural land devoted to organic farming reached 8% in 2019. And the number of farms undergoing conversion continues to grow.
A special mention to the Occitanie region, first on the podium with its 1,600 new organic farmers in 2019!
Some regions aren't faring as well, but we shouldn't blame them. Grain-growing regions aren't experiencing the transition at the same pace as others. And for good reason: the pressure placed on their sector after the Second World War transformed the bocages into vast fields dedicated to monoculture. This heavy historical legacy has generated habits and an economic model that are much more difficult to reshape.
Sophie d'Hoine, a market gardener from Calvados and a muse of her region, a proponent of permaculture and short supply chains, defends a model close to the ethics of the founders of sustainable agriculture : a practice thought above all as a reasonable and reasoned socio-economic model!
Above all, it proves that 100% organic farming is economically viable and allows a large part of the population to be fed locally without increasing the number of hectares.
She is also planning to install a vending machine for fresh vegetables in front of her farm!
Proof, if any were needed, that organic is not necessarily synonymous with rejection of technological progress.
A technology that is also on display at the Show this year!
Among other things, we can admire the weeding robot from a French start-up which is enriching the range of solutions for agriculture without chemicals .
“Digital agriculture” is also developing at an exponential rate, and we can only be pleased about that.
Software that optimizes the supply of water and plant protection products already makes it possible, in some cases, to reduce spreading to a quarter of what it was a few years ago! Of course, this is not yet organic farming, but it is a valuable aid to the ecological transition .
If the consumer has finally understood that the ecosystem is a whole of which he is a part, there is no doubt that our farmers have also, for the most part, integrated it. There are many testimonies, speaking of their journey, admittedly sometimes costly and complicated, to arrive at a practice that is more respectful of our environment and our health .
So enjoy your stroll through the aisles of the 2020 Salon de l'Agriculture, chat with the exhibitors and, like Perette in the fable, nourish the hope of a future populated by calves, cows, pigs and broods... Organic of course!
