Last week, I spent a few days in France attending a press event for a major ATV and UTV manufacturer. The event was held at the HECTAR pilot farm, which aims to address the ongoing challenges of an ageing agricultural workforce, a lack of young people entering the sector, and the continued pressure to create a net-zero farming business that can communicate its values to buyers and processors.
Covering 400 hectares and including a dairy, suckler beef herd and an arable enterprise, the farm is no small operation and is being run with a very non-traditional outlook. None of the team come from farming families and the business focus, including KPIs and Gantt charts displayed in the farm office and staff room was reminiscent of my previous career in manufacturing and engineering.
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Talking to the team, it was very clear they wanted to farm differently and move away from the stereotypes often applied to agriculture by an urban population. They highlighted the lack of understanding among many French consumers about where and how food is produced, and the financial realities and risks involved in producing it. That somewhat deflated the widely held perception that the French population is generally much better connected to the rural sector than our own.
Listening to the team, it was clear that farm production was focused on a regenerative model, one that largely rejects the plough and virtually all forms of agrochemicals as part of a strategy to produce carbon-neutral food while improving biodiversity across the farm.
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Mostly, I support this approach. I also support the focus on bringing people from non-agricultural backgrounds into farming and running it as a professional business like any other. However, the output of regenerative grains to make delicious but exclusive loaves, artisan yoghurt and pasture-fed beef is very much food for the few, not the many, and there is a risk that it could widen the divide between those who can afford to buy premium regenerative products and those who cannot.
