Perched on her bike, Brigitte Bardot sang: "I don't need anyone on a Harley Davidson."
They don't need anyone in… John Deere!
Red varnish on the nails, Sophiie_farmerlife, Océaneagricultriceofficiel and Claire_maman_agricultrice appear at the wheel of their tractor.
On Instagram, TikTok or YouTube blooms a new generation of breeders, cereal farmers, farm managers enthroning glamor on the farm.
Feminine and feminist, these agricultural influencers use social networks to share the passion for a profession less and less reserved for men: women today represent 30% of permanent agricultural workers, compared to only 8% at the beginning of the 1970s.
Read alsoThree women, three farmers, three extraordinary journeys
Smartphone wedged in their work overalls, these muses of the #farmgirl #tractorgirl #agricultrice community show their daily lives: the milking parlor, the preparation of the soil for sowing, publish selfies with their Charolais, pose in stilettos in front of a field of corn.
Their objective: to plow the clichés.
No more question of staying in the shadows like their mothers or grandmothers, once considered as housewives helping their husbands on the farm.
Since 2010, the GAEC (Groupement agricole d'exploitation en commun) between spouses has finally been recognized, but the stereotypes persist.
How many times have these stylish and dolled-up young women heard in the evening: "Ah, are you a farmer?"
On video, which fruits and vegetables are the least contaminated with pesticides?
Convinced that farmers must both open up to the world and help each other, they did not wait for the #JNAgri (National Days of Agriculture), organized on June 17, 18 and 19 everywhere in France, to celebrate their profession and fight "agribashing" accusing the sector of being responsible for climate change, soil pollution and animal suffering.
Riding on the success of the Miss France agricultural competition, these local influencers are developing collaborations with brands, offering promo codes for tested products – milking fat!
– and attract thousands of followers.
Rural people, but also city dwellers seduced by the publications of these "happycultrices" delivering uplifting news: despite the difficulties of the profession, humor is in the meadow.
Sophie Renaud, 29, cereal farmer in Charente-Maritime
Sophiie_farmerlife
on Instagram (20,400 subscribers)
Full screen
Sophie Renaud, grain farmer in Charente-Maritime.
Instagram screenshot/@sophie_farmerlife
His journey
Five generations that we cultivate the land among the Renauds.
Sophie realizes that she is made for it after her BTS counted.
She passes a BPREA (Professional certificate in charge of agricultural exploitation) and settles down in 2016. Wheat, corn, barley, rapeseed... Following the plant from sowing to harvest fascinates her, she finds it "rewarding" to feed people.
In 2019, a knee operation forced her to rest.
Impossible to reap the harvest, consecration of the work of a whole year.
Rather than get depressed, Sophie starts sharing her #farmgirl life.
Her style
This stylish brunette with glasses, elected Miss France agricultural 2021, combines glamorous photos and professional comments.
She takes her tripod everywhere.
Strikes a pose in shorts and a cap in a field: “Corn is growing fast!
I still pray for water.”
“Have you finished your sowing?” she asks, crazy in a black dress.
“Freezing damage?” she asks, perched on stilettos.
Boosting interactivity allows him to get out of a reputedly solitary job.
Her best audience
A photo where Sophie smiles in front of the giant wheels of her tractor, accompanied by a message of "good weekend".
The sexy and chunky John Deere pants combo (the "agris" are fans of this American brand) has reached more than 100,000 accounts: "People liked it, because before, she analyzes, a farmer didn't have this image -the."
His credo
“Painted fingernails have never prevented driving a tractor, nor thinking.
» Vice-president of the Syndicate of the entrepreneurs of the territories of Charente-Maritime, Sophie wants to show that the women can as well keep the accounts of the exploitation as to carry out the physical tasks while remaining themselves.
She doesn't like being thrown at her: "Leave it, I'll wear it!"
"Seeing us, she explains, young girls can say to themselves: 'I can do it too'."
Her
Sophie community started with 192 subscribers.
Today, she reaches nearly 20,000 followers whom she considers a “family”: farmers from all over France, but also from Canada, Mexico or Australia, who introduce her to different techniques and productions.
His network also reaches professionals in the construction industry or garden centres, and fashionistas who flash on his Zara shirt.
Her projects
Not thrilled by the cheap clothes offered to women farmers, Sophie promotes brands that she likes to wear – like leggings with pockets, so practical!
She has created her own line, Frenchfarmershop, which she intends to develop on her site.
T-shirts, polo shirts, hats showing that you can stay stylish in the fields.
Clothes to say: "I am proud to be a farmer and I show it."
Océane Balland, 20, breeder and cereal farmer in Haute-Saône
Oceaneagricultriceofficiel
on Instagram (24,300 subscribers)
and Océane Agricultrice on YouTube (42,700 subscribers)
Full screen
Océane Balland, breeder and cereal farmer in Haute-Saône.
Screenshot Instagram/@oceaneagricultriceofficiel
Her career
When she was two years old, Océane drove the tractor on her father's or grandfather's lap.
Graduated from a CGEA pro baccalaureate (Driving and management of the agricultural business), the young girl settled in July 2020 on 40 hectares in organic farming and worked part-time as an employee with her father, in conventional, where she watches over a hundred Charolais suckler cows.
Her combative character propels her onto YouTube.
In college, his plan to move to the farm earned him teasing and harassment.
Océane tells herself that if she does nothing, “the world will never change for women”.
Her style
In her first videos, she doesn't show herself.
Film only the beasts.
Today, Océane no longer hides.
Bright smile, tattoo in the neck, she shares her slices of life on the farm.
Balance in his soundtrack a hit by singer Ridsa: "I'm moving forward, too bad if it offends you, your opinion doesn't make sense, today, I don't care."
She films herself in shorts, boots and a tank top, driving a CLAAS 670 Lexion tracked for harvesting rapeseed, a T560 for preparing wheat sowing.
How do you cure manure?
What is the vibrocultivator?
Océane explains her job, takes selfies with the faces of her Charolais and shows the first steps of a calf.
Crunchy.
Its best audience
A video on YouTube that shows the collection of straw: more than 2 million views.
"It was a lot of fun, maybe the younger ones," she said.
I have a lot of kids watching my videos.”
His credo
“When we want, we can!”
Océane shows a steely determination.
She wants to show girls that you can be girly and mechanical.
As she talks to us on the phone, Océane is emptying the blades of a mower!
She likes "absolutely everything" about her job, except when a visitor comes to her farm and asks, "Where's the boss?"
His community
Many caring followers who encourage him.
Professionals – “Nice video, happy to see you again, always so beautiful and passionate”, greets Manu, milkman from Tarn;
"Really nice video with great work", congratulates her Agriculturespotter -, but also "people in the offices", curious to know her life on the farm.
His plans
To take over the operation of his "dad" in 2023 by partnering with him.
Intensify its activity on the networks by offering sales of clothing and accessories with its own logo.
Ophélie Damblé, 33, urban farmer at Citéfertile in Pantin
Ophelietamerenature
on Instagram (21,100 subscribers),
Ophelie – Ta Mère Nature on YouTube (26,300 subscribers)
Full screen
Ophélie Damblé, urban farmer at the Cité fertile de Pantin.
Instagram screenshot/@ophelietamerenature
Her career
A graduate of the theater conservatory and a film degree, Ophélie was a freelancer, voiceover, community manager in an advertising agency.
So when this communicator leaves everything in 2017 to convert to organic farming, she gives herself an instruction: keep a "vlog", a video diary, on her change of life and on her training with market gardeners.
A friend to whom she shows a rough cut encourages her: “Build your YouTube channel!”
Her style
She finds the title, Your Mother Nature, a “punchy and urban thing” while brainstorming with her roommate.
Cool pedagogy, self-mockery, playful and instructive advice, his recipe puts urban agriculture in punk mode.
"Urine will save our soils (yes, yes)";
“Growing endives in a cupboard”;
“C koi le vermicompost?”… This realistic dreamer also gives advice to city dwellers on how to grow edible or aromatic plants and vegetables in small spaces.
His credo
“Fuck it!”
Sophie addresses dunces, “bad seeds who don't think they have a green thumb”.
His mantra: you have to mess up to move forward.
Many crashes punctuate, like a running gag, her videos, where she stages her troubles, her inexperience, her cuttings that do not take.
Imperfection touches her.
It is the wild plants emerging from the cracks in the wall, the overflows that interest him.
Its best audience
How to water your plants during the holidays: 64,000 views.
Hairbrush in hand, she screams on
Voyage, voyage,
by Desireless, before giving her tips: evapotranspiration, watering with string, the clay container "for the big lazy gardeners..."
Her community
A tribe of faithful whom she greets with an affectionate: “Hello, little sausages!”
More women, 25-35 year olds, city dwellers.
Every two or three days, she receives an email from someone who wants to retrain.
Those who have built their vermicomposter send her photos: “I am less sensitive to likes, she says, than to actions that have an impact on reality.”
Her projects
She has just published
Opération Bye Bye Béton
, a children's book (Éditions La ville brûlée), wants to continue to welcome different school groups, young people from neighborhoods and Defense executives into her nursery... In discussion with a teacher in the middle of prison, she dreams of a project of revegetation and animation in prison: "Nature allows us to talk about food, childhood memories and sensations, it is a universal language."
Claire Gervais, 27, dairy cow farmer in the Cotentin
Claire_maman_agricultrice
on TikTok (335,600 subscribers),
on Instagram (13,900 subscribers)
Full screen
Claire Gervais, dairy cow breeder in the Cotentin.
Screenshot Instagram/@claire_maman_agricultrice
Her journey
As a child, she dreamed of the theatre.
Make your loved ones laugh by camping the Vamps.
Imagine choreographies.
With her baccalaureate in her pocket, Claire favors her other passion: she will be a farmer, like her parents.
After a BTS at the agricultural school of Coutances in 2014, she joined the family GAEC to take care of a herd of 200 Prim'Holstein, Norman and Jersey cows.
Elected second runner-up of Miss France agricultural 2019, this blonde with contagious pep transforms her daily life into a “farm party” on social networks.
Her style
Garden hose instead of the microphone, she sings Celine Dion in the milking parlour.
Send work suits waltzing on the torrid
You Can Leave Your Hat On,
by Joe Cocker.
Improvised as a DJ with the buttons on her tractor… For Fashion Week, Claire marched through the stable in rain gear, Karcher in hand, to a Britney Spears hit.
On camera: his sister or sisters-in-law.
Her best audience
On TikTok, her version of
Oh Na Na
triumphs, a choreography of the feet that she revisits while dancing with the clogs of Jongleuse, her favorite jersey.
It pulses and it hits: 1.6 million views.
His credo
"Boost those who do not dare and who underestimate themselves."
Claire juggles between the milking parlor and her life as a young mother (a 5-year-old girl, a 1-year-old boy), shows herself driving a tractor with her “choupinette” or breastfeeding her baby in a field.
Co-creator of a Facebook page on the place of women in agriculture, she is the ambassador of a generation of #proudwomen farmers who are fighting for their rights.
Her community
“Colleagues” with whom she discusses grazing, dynamic turning, cattle or fashion (“What is the brand of your milking apron?” asks a colleague) and urbanites disconnected from pastures.
Claire likes to communicate directly with consumers: “Before, they always knew a farmer,” she says.
It is important to create a link with city dwellers to explain our job to them.”
His projects
On the personal side, a wedding in July with the father of his children, also a farmer (for now, it's each his own farm).
On the professional side: offering visits to the farm to share your passion, “no longer just virtual, but in real life”.
