WHAT CONNECTS US From the farm… to the agricultural enterprise Agriculture is central to many debates nowadays, yet the vast majority of people are unaware of the socio-economic shifts that have been sweeping through the industry in recent decades. Gaining a better overview of how the situation is playing out across France puts us in a stronger position to support our farmers – now and in the next generations – as they take up the gauntlet of ROUND TABLE 1: OBSERVATIONS. the many challenges before them. Taking stock of exis琀椀ng organisa琀椀onal models for agricultural produc琀椀on. Renewal of the France’s agricultural sector has been hit by workforce and emergence of new agricultural an accelerating succession of upheavals over businesses; work昀氀ow organisa琀椀on (doing the the last thirty years. Farmers now make up work together vs. having it done by others). Par琀椀cipants: Christoph BÜREN, President of the just 1.5% of the country’s working population. VIVESCIA Group; François PURSEIGLE, sociologist Fewer than 400,000 people actively run a farm at Agro Toulouse INP-ENSAT and author of Une today and half of those are set to retire within Agriculture Sans Agriculteurs (“Agriculture the next decade – a quarter of them without Without Farmers”); Geneviève N’GUYEN, agro- having identi昀椀ed a successor. The model of the economist at Agro Toulouse INP-ENSAT; Emmy family farm is collapsing at an ever-accelerating DURBECQ, VIVESCIA member-farmer; Clément pace. This leaves the way open for a whole REGNAULT, VIVESCIA member-farmer; Jean- Baptiste MILLARD, delegate-general, Agridées host of potential recon昀椀gurations of the thinktank; Christine GANDON, President of workforce and of organisational structures. This unspoken revolution1 Crédit Agricole du Nord Est; Thierry POUCH, chief is what the GERMEA economist at the Chambre of Agriculture; Franck Business Chair was set up to study, sponsored SANDER, Vice-Chairman of the FNSEA. by VIVESCIA alongside two other partner cooperatives, Euralis and Terrena. To give us a clearer picture of the current state of affairs and to inform our thinking as we plan for the future, we wanted to discuss its 昀椀ndings 1. Une agriculture sans agriculteurs, la révolution indicible (“An Agriculture Without Farmers: The Unspoken Revolution”) by Bertrand Hervieu and François Purseigle, Presses de Sciences Po, 2022. 20