Fermes d'Avenir: Farms of the Future for More Sustainable Agriculture

Transition means changing the current system toward a new model, recognizing that the current one isn't working as it should. Agriculture, for example, is a sector that needs to refocus on its environmental sustainability. This is why, in 2013, the Fermes d'Avenir (Farms of the Future) association was founded, working to research and develop new agricultural models, experimenting with agri-ecological practices that can be adapted to each context.

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FERMES D'AVENIR

Fermes d'Avenir believes that the agriculture of the future, with positive impacts, is possible. Agroecology is scientifically more efficient and less harmful than conventional agriculture, placing care for the environment and the people involved at the heart of its processes. Caring for people and nature is not an option, but a prerequisite for sustainable agriculture that provides healthy food to as many people as possible, leaving no one behind. The goal is to "cultivate" agro-ecological farms throughout France, supporting individuals, communities, and businesses by providing them with ecological know-how and expertise to make as many farms as possible sustainable, efficient, and functional . To this end, the association reaches out to the various stakeholders involved: farmers and future farmers, businesses, territories, landowners, citizens, and consumers. Organized around a network of several hundred agro-ecological farms throughout France, the project revolves around four missions: production, training, awareness-raising, and self-financing. The team of farmers of the future, led by a team of tenacious, determined, and competent young women, is a family of about fifteen people between Tours, Bordeaux, and Paris.

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AGROECOLOGY PROJECT FERMES D'AVENIR

The project's founder, a very young environmental engineer born in 1981, Maxime de Rostolan, an entrepreneur, ecologist, essayist, and activist, has spent a lifetime promoting permaculture and agri-ecology, including a two-year global trip studying water issues in regions with limited water supplies. In 2013, after earning a professional certification in organic horticulture, he and Louis Albert de Broglie founded the Bourdaisière micro-farm, where he studied and experimented with cutting-edge permaculture techniques. Around the same time, he founded Fermes d'Avenir, which he left in 2019 to pursue other adventures and activities, all on the same side. The intuition behind the creation of the farms of the future is that we only have 20 years to change the world, otherwise we will find ourselves defeated and unable to reverse course. This thesis is contained in Maxime's book of the same name, published in 2018 by Larousse and made into a documentary that same year. It contains the political manifesto behind the work of Fermes d'Avenir: the creation of an experimental permaculture farm in Montlouis-sur-Loire to demonstrate through experience the profitability of healthy production on small plots with little mechanization; short-term and long-term training; self-financing through the Blue Bees crowdfunding platform dedicated to sustainable agriculture and food; intensive work with the press and media to raise public awareness on the issues; and, above all, the Companion Program, a veritable eight-month "Tour de France" of agroecology, which allows visits to our network's farms to teach organic horticulture know-how. The program has been welcoming refugees for two years, adding a social dimension to the project.

(Featured image accompanying the text taken from the Fermes d'Avenir Facebook page // Photocredits: Fermes d'Avenir)

AGRICULTURAL STORIES:

• I'll give it to you if you come and pick it: free fruit and vegetables directly from a field in Brindisi (video)
• Antonio, 28, has spent his life among the lentil fields: after the earthquake he turned it into a job.
• Andrea's jams: from London finance to the Brianza countryside. For happiness.