It is an in-depth investigation, 300 pages long, the fruit of several years of work and collection of words. Newspaper correspondent The world in Brittany, Nicolas Legendre surveyed the farms of the first French agricultural region to question the peasants on the model in which they live or survive. In Silence in the fields (Editions Arthaud), the son of peasants gives the floor to more than 150 actors who evolve in this agri-food empire that it is frowned upon to challenge. Because they were afraid, many of his interlocutors requested anonymity to recount the intimidation, the pressures, the poisonings and the sabotages of which they were victims.
In the book, we discover a very dark facet of a sector where very powerful agro-industrial groups and breeders in debt up to their necks mix. A model that wears down the earth and people, pollutes the sea and acts like a spider’s web in which the peasants would be prisoners. A model that encourages the farmer to grow and invest ever more, under penalty of being sidelined. Some dare to speak of mafia, others of modern slavery. The sector is a heavyweight in the local economy. It has economic, ecological, social, political repercussions… It is to give a voice to those who have none that the journalist embarked on this investigation carried out in the most remote corners of Brittany. Barely published, it has already reacted, sometimes violently.
A Breton elected official accuses you of “tapping Brittany” with your investigation. What do you say to him?
I did not want to react to his remarks. I expected that. This is proof of what the book says. We cannot question the Breton model. Anyone who would do so would be a traitor to the Breton economy, or even to Brittany in general. This is standard rhetoric in the region. If you are not in the system, then you become its enemy.
Some are already calling you an enemy of Brittany…
This region, I grew up there, I love it. Brittany, for me, is visceral. But it pains me to see her as she is today. My parents were peasants, I saw real massacres, the disappearance of fauna and flora. We smashed the country in some places, we tore up hedges, drained wetlands, re-consolidated fields. In the name of what ?
In Brittany, journalists who investigate agriculture have recently denounced sabotage aiming at them. Have you been pressured?
No None. Maybe because I work for The world. Maybe it’s because it’s a protective label. I did not suffer any intimidation. I found closed doors of course, but all my work was to go through the window. There is an obvious gag effect in the region, of people who do not want us to talk about what is happening on the farms. Over the course of the investigation, I had to discover myself a little. I started to be suspicious of what I said on the phone, I even checked my car tires several times. It may be silly, but what happened to Morgan Large echoed in my mind. Throughout the investigation, I had it in my head.
Why did you decide to publish this book?
I have been dealing with agricultural subjects for several years. I felt that there were things to tell. I saw peasants at the end of their tether, on the verge of tears when they spoke to me about their situation. The Breton agricultural system has reached an impasse and it is producing a lot of suffering. I knew it before this investigation because we hear about suicide, pollution. But I didn’t think the situation was so dramatic.
In your book, you mention “the shadows” who attack the peasants. What are you talking about ?
I met a lot of people who told me serious things. Antibiotics dumped in the milk tank, poisoned cows, herbicide-grilled meadows, bank refusals, anonymous threatening letters. We can think that it is that, the rural world and the countryside. But it’s not just that. There are organized people who ruin the lives of certain people who disturb them. I don’t think it’s global coordination. Just people who want to defend a sacred union around agribusiness. In Brittany, we have the feeling that everyone must unite around the model.
What do you hope to change with this book?
What I would like is to free speech. It was long believed that the pattern could be changed slowly and quietly. I think above all that there is a collective denial, like a family secret. Brittany is not doing too badly from a general point of view. But all families can carry heavy secrets. I want to make different voices heard, not just that of the FNSEA. I talked about it with some senior members of the union. They are lucid, they know that there are things to change. Some are prisoners of their situation. Their cooperative is both their client and their creditor. Their freedom of speech is therefore relatively restricted.
In your opinion, what would be the solution to get out of the single productivist model?
Some like to criticize those who want another model, saying that we can’t go back to the cart and the horse. But nobody wants that, nobody. What it would take is careful planning to get out of the pattern. A plan over several decades where we would put the means and the method. So yes, there will be sweat and tears but it’s that or chaos when the earth says stop. This is already the case elsewhere. We must stop the race for greatness. Some kill themselves to work to earn nothing. Having a big tractor, okay, but what for? The enlargement is sometimes uncontrolled. To grow, but to do what? To go where ?