The story of

three generations
of farmers

Agriculture and
Rural Development

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Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication.
Luxembourg : Publications Office of the European Union, 2014
ISBN 978-92-79-37316-9
doi:10.2762/24065
Illustrations: Mi Ran Collin
European Union, 2014
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
Printed in Belgium
Printed on recycled paper

The family is fictional, but their story could be that of countless farming families across Europe.

The story of

three generations
of farmers

All families have stories. This is ours. It covers the last 50 years hard times to start with, but better now. Farmers were almost a dying
breed. Europe came to our rescue. The EU gave us incentives and provided a financial safety net. But we have earned every cent weve
made down the years, often the hard way. If youre not smart, or not prepared to make the effort or take the risk, you can still fail.
On this farm everybody works even the cat has a job to do as mouse-catcher.

Grandfathers story the first generation

My name is Jean. I was born into a farming family in Normandy between
the two world wars. Weve had the farm for generations. Were still
there but my daughter and grandson run it now. The people I grew up
with all worked on the land. Our village was our life. A lot more people
lived in the countryside than nowadays.

The war was sheer hell. I

began running the farm
shortly after it ended.
Almost everything was
rationed. People did not
have enough food; we
farmers couldnt produce
what they needed. We
just had a small farm
with dairy cows, pigs and
some chickens. We were
poor, the work was backbreaking and the future
looked bleak.

Then in the 1960s things started to

improve. The EU provided subsidies and
a guaranteed price for what we produced.
We bought a tractor and trailer so that we
could work faster; we produced more with
every harvest. But there were few longterm prospects here for youngsters. All
around us, young people were abandoning
the countryside in search of a better life
in the cities.

It didnt always work out for them. This was the 60s the
hippie era with drugs and rock and all the rest. Youngsters
spent their money as fast as they made it. Some did OK: they
now have big houses and big cars. Others just went under. Very
few chose to come back here.

We were caught in a bind. The farm was doing better thanks to the help from
the EU. With new machines we were able to do more with less effort. We took
a calculated risk by bringing in new technology ahead of all our neighbours.
We could now live modestly but securely, on our income. My wife Marie and I
took our very first holiday. But our children began asking us questions about
their future. As more young people left the farms and villages, their world
seemed to be full of older folks like us, and children, with no-one in between.
They too were looking towards the city.

We helped our three children make up their own minds. There wasnt enough
land for everyone to farm, and breaking it up made no sense either. The
two boys went to the city one became an electronics engineer, the other
a metro driver. As they had good jobs they stayed there. But our daughter
Amelie loved the countryside. She went to the agricultural college to learn
about new techniques, crop varieties, animal breeds and farm management.

In the 1970s, we farmers ran into big trouble. We were

producing enough food for everybody in fact more than
enough. The result was bigger and bigger surpluses, costing
EU taxpayers vast amounts to store and sell off. In 1984,
the CAP brought in the first production limits. Others were
to follow.

It was about this time that my wife and I retired to a cottage in the village. I didnt feel ready
to retire. But the new challenges needed a new generation. It was going to be harder to make a
living. Should we invest in new technology? Should we rent land from neighbours to boost output?
What animals or crops offered the best prospects? These were decisions for Amelie. I was ready
with advice. But Amelie has a mind of her own and she has the vision and the determination
to make things happen. I knew she would manage, and she did.

Amelies story
In the beginning, it was hard for some people to accept that I was the
farmer, and not just a farmers wife. As soon as I took over the farm, I could
sense that big changes were inevitable. We needed to be more careful
about using natural resources and protecting the environment. Consumer
tastes were changing too. We quickly responded by concentrating more
on the local specialities and the organic food that people seemed to like.
Within a couple of years I married Paul who now runs the farm with me.

Another change concerned biodiversity. The numbers of birds, bees,

other insects and plants have been falling. I understood that keeping
small natural areas around our fields helps bring them back. The
countryside belongs to everyone. Some children have never seen
real farm animals and wildlife except on television. For me, thats
hard to imagine. Rural areas should be the natural place for city
dwellers to come for recreation and relaxation. Its all here for them
and their children to enjoy.

Farming is not a bed of roses. If you keep animals problems can arise. One year our cattle contracted foot and mouth disease
a farmers nightmare. Of course we got the vet to treat them. But its not as simple as that. We were banned from moving animals
off the farm, to stop the disease from spreading. We couldnt sell any animals or dairy products. This cost us a lot of money, but the
EU helped pay for some of the extra costs, and compensated us for part of the loss. We would have been out of business without
this help.

As you can imagine I became even more committed to using resources

more carefully, particularly water and the soil, and applying more natural
production methods keeping animals out in the open as much as possible
and using chemical fertilisers and pesticides as little as possible. But running
a farm successfully means staying ahead of the curve. We rented land from
neighbours. We started keeping sheep to give us an alternative means of
income. I started organising school visits for children.

10

Politicians and governments now realise the

importance of farmers and farming for the future of
rural communities. As part of our work is to take care
of the environment and natural resources, its only
fair that we get paid for it. The EU pays us because
no-one else will. We cant do this work for nothing. Yet
it has to be done if we want (as I do) to maintain our
countryside as part of our common heritage.

Another initiative was to process and package

more of our products on the farm, selling directly
on the local market or to local shops. We were
not short of customers. I liked to take our farm
products (such as milk, butter, ice cream) to the
market and meet consumers. This way we earned
more for ourselves, instead of selling unprocessed
products at low prices to food manufacturers
and distributors. We could offer part-time jobs
to several villagers and help the local economy.
This was our contribution to slowing the rural
exodus, and securing a future living right here for
our children, if they wanted it. Our son Vincent
certainly did.

11

New horizons
Hi, Im Vincent, the son of Amelie and Paul. I work with my parents and lecture parttime at the agricultural college. Thats where I met my wife, Ewa. She was an exchange
student from Poland. Shes from a family farm too. Farming in central or eastern
Europe is still not easy. People have been leaving rural areas in droves. For those
who stayed, much has changed. All those EU rules were baffling at first, even if they
brought changes for the better. Few farmers thought of themselves as businessmen.
They just worked hard and trusted the weather would deliver a good harvest.

Ewa and I spend some of our time in France, but most

of it in Poland. We are trying to learn from each other
and use the mixed background to grow our business. In
France our activities have developed. Farm tourism is on the
march. City folk are buying up farmhouses and barns and
are renovating them as second residences. Its giving our
region a new lease of life and generating extra jobs to boot.

12

In Poland there were lots of opportunities to be followed up, especially when subsidies
from Brussels began. We converted one of the buildings into a farm cottage that we
rent out to tourists. Want to visit? Bring some friends; rock, soul and heavy metal
performers in the barn every other weekend.

13

But life is not easy in either France or Poland. The world we live in is different from my grandfathers. He faced his
challenges and we face ours. These include stiffer requirements for quality and safety and animal welfare. One
of our biggest challenges is climate change with more extremes of droughts and floods. My mother-in-law was
nearly drowned when the nearby river burst its banks two years ago. They lost most of their harvest and half of
the livestock. And they were not insured. Now they know better.

Where we can, we fight climate

change. Where we cannot, we adapt
to it. We took out an insurance policy
against crop damage. We help cut
carbon emissions too. Our wind
turbines generate clean electricity
and we turn farm waste into low
carbon biogas as an alternative to
diesel fuel.

14

Ewa and I look at our children and worry about the future but
our worries are those of every parent: how will our children make
their way through the tough and complex world we live in? We
have been able to provide a secure future for them here in the
countryside. But will they stay? We hope they will.

Here on the farm, were

as high tech as anybody.
We use GPS, cell-phones
and other mobile devices,
for anything from weather
forecasts, monitoring market
prices, checking the delivery
of supplies to mapping the
farm. The village is full of
life. We have cafs at both
our farms. We host weddings
and business functions in
converted buildings. In France
we do a sideline in childrens
parties at weekends. The
closed inner yard makes the
farm look like a castle, and we
hire out costumes and provide
medieval banquets.

15

So in 2012 the wheel has turned full circle. Like my grandfather 50 years ago, we help feed people across Europe
and beyond. But nowadays we do a lot more besides taking care of the environment, managing the limited natural
resources we have and keeping abreast of the latest technological developments. Ive also got involved in helping the
local community. But our main income still comes from farming.

I am happy that I have my family around me after all these years, and proud that we are still farming. It was, and still is, a tough life, but
it is a rewarding one. People will always need food, so they will always need farmers. In times of economic and financial turbulence we
still have our land. And the land will always work with us to give us the food we need, provided we take care of it. Now it is for the young
to write the next chapter in the story that binds us to our land.

16

KF-04-14-394-EN-C

The family is fictional, but their story could be that of countless

farming families across Europe.

European Commission
Directorate-General Agriculture and Rural Development

ISBN 978-92-79-37316-9
doi: 10.2762/24065