While the anger of breeders and producers is gaining ground, several faces from the agricultural world have emerged in the media in recent weeks, demanding measures to address the malaise of an entire profession.
Arnaud Rousseau, Jérôme Bayle, Karine Duc, Arnaud Gaillot… Who are the figures of the growing farmers' revolt?
Jérôme Bayle, at the origin of the first dam in Haute-Garonne
This cattle breeder in Montesquieu-Volvestre, in Haute-Garonne, very quickly established himself as one of the faces of the protest.
On January 16, he gathered at the Place du Capitole in Toulouse, alongside a thousand demonstrators, calling for the A64 to be blocked and roadblocks to be set up.
He then distanced himself from the FNSEA (National Federation of Agricultural Operators' Unions) which had called on breeders and producers to stop the movement.
“We looked at each other with my friends, and I went for it, with my guts and my heart,” he described to Le Monde.
Jérôme Bayle had established himself as one of the figures of the farmers' protest movement.
Miguel MEDINA / AFP AFP or licensors
The next day, this former rugby player brought with him nearly 200 tractors on the highway to Carbonne (Haute-Garonne).
The action, particularly noted, continued for more than a week before inspiring other blockages in the rest of France.
With his cap screwed on his head, the 42-year-old farmer with his assertive cheekiness still stands out through his battered life journey.
Run over by his tractor in 2011, the breeder emerged from the accident with multiple fractures (pelvis, legs) and several weakened organs (kidney, liver and sciatic nerve affected).
Four years later, another tragedy overwhelmed him: “harassed” by measures linked to bluetongue, his father committed suicide with a gunshot in the courtyard of his farm.
Also read: Angry farmers: Jérôme Bayle, bridgehead and already contested figure in the agricultural unrest
“It is not possible that someone who has worked 40 years day and night does not have the right to a normal end of life,” he told TF 1. Since the lifting of the roadblock 'A64 last Friday, Jérôme Bayle returned to work on his farm.
The breeder, at the head of a herd of 90 cows, explained that the announcements made by the Prime Minister seemed sufficient to him today.
“For us, the aim of the game was to ring out the revolt.
We obtained the demands,” he explained to BFMTV.
“I did not bend (to) the State, I bowed (to) the demands that we asked for.
It was they who folded, we won the match,” he again defended, while ensuring support for the new actions of farmers planned for this week.
Arnaud Rousseau, a former broker at the head of the FNSEA
Another spearhead of the protest, Aurélien Rousseau.
The president of the FNSEA, the sector's leading union, was until now little known to the general public.
This farmer and boss of the agri-food industry, now 50 years old, has an atypical background, far from that of the average French farmer.
As cereal producers, Aurélien Rousseau and his wife have a 700 ha farm in Seine-et-Marne - where the average size for a farmer does not exceed 69 ha, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Arnaud Rousseau began his career in the financial markets before being elected head of the FNSEA in 2023. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP AFP or licensors
A former graduate of the European Business School in Paris, Aurélien Rousseau began his career... on the financial markets, carrying out brokerage and trading activities in raw materials, according to La Dépêche.
It was only in 2002 that he participated in the agricultural work on his father's farm, before taking charge of the operation ten years later.
Another hat (and not the least), the former broker is also president of Avril, the main producer of edible oils in France (Lesieur, Puget, etc.). At the head of the FNSEA since 2023, the operator, which also defends the “megabasins” model, arouses criticism within part of the profession.
Some criticize him for defending a productivist agricultural model, to the detriment of respect for the environment and the well-being of farmed animals.
Reproaches that he brushes aside, asserting that he wants to defend “the French plate” in the face of the importation of food products.
Karine Duc, co-president of the Lot-et-Garonne rural coordination
She is one of the few women to publicly defend the farmers' cause.
For almost a year, this 38-year-old winegrower has co-chaired the very active Rural Coordination of Lot-et-Garonne (CR47).
After holding several positions in the administration, Karine Duc took over the family farm in 2020 to produce table grapes using organic farming.
Granddaughter of breeders and farmers, this mother of two children, whose husband was also a market gardener for a time, nourished her union commitment by seeing her loved ones get bogged down in the difficulties of the profession.
His aspiration?
“Ensure that the farmer goes to bed at night with knots in his stomach undone,” she sums up to Libération.
Karine Duc (center), a 38-year-old wine grower, co-chairs the Lot-et-Garonne Rural Coordination (CR47).
Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP AFP or licensors
And to achieve this, don’t hesitate to strike hard, even if it means standing out from other organizations.
For several days, the Rural Coordination union, often described as close to the extreme right, has increased its punchy actions, dumping and burning tires and slurry on Wednesday in front of the Agen prefecture.
“We are up against the wall.
Our movement will last, in intensity.
Stop this game, make announcements now!
» immediately thundered Karine Duc, wearing a yellow cap with the logo “CR47”, at the franceinfo microphone.
Arnaud Gaillot, defender of Young Farmers
Long-time involved with the Young Farmers (JA), Arnaud Gaillot will take the helm of the union in 2022. After several years of experience in public works, the Jura resident settled in the Doubs, with an associate, to take care of a herd of 90 dairy cows and around fifty heifers.
Faced with the demographic erosion of the agricultural world, the breeder is committed to “attracting young people, training them, supporting them in their installation project, until the transfer” of their land.
Arnaud Gaillot, at the head of Young Farmers, defends in particular a reduction in environmental standards.
Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP AFP or licensors
At the head of a 140 ha farm, Arnaud Gaillot has continued to demand, since the start of the movement, an increase in farmers' remuneration, as well as a reduction in environmental standards.
Highly publicized, the union leader stood out by calling in recent days on the members of his organization not to participate in violent actions, as well as “not to give in to populist temptation”.
Cyrille Millard, head of FDSEA of Seine-et-Marne
At the head of a field crop farm (corn, wheat, rapeseed, beetroot) in Maison-Rouge in Seine-et-Marne, Cyrille Milard is a well-known figure in the agricultural community in Île-de-France.
First with the Young Farmers (JA), since 2018 he has held the head of the Departmental Federation of Agricultural Farmers' Unions of Seine-et-Marne (FDSEA 77).
For years, the union representative has been speaking out in the media, fighting against environmental standards, as in 2016 during the ban on neonicotinoids - insecticides implicated in the mortality of bees.
In 2019, the farmer also participated in the “fires of anger” operation to denounce the stigmatization of his environment.
At the time, a few hundred operators set fire to pallets, bales of straw and stumps, to denounce, among other things, the project to establish non-treatment zones (ZNT) intended to protect populations against the dangers of pesticides. .
“Plants must be protected from viruses, bacteria, fungi, pests.
No one deals for pleasure, and in France we do it in a reasoned way,” he then defended to Point.
Since 2018, Cyrille Milard has been head of the Departmental Federation of Agricultural Farmers' Unions of Seine-et-Marne (FDSEA 77).
LP / Sébastien Blondé
The union representative spoke again in recent days, explaining that he wanted to “toughen his tone” in the face of the lack of responses from the executive.
“Faced with tractors, I don’t see what the CRS are going to do,” he explained to franceinfo.
“We are capable of doing much worse.
They (the members of the government) will have to move a little, get us out of this, get agriculture out of this slump, give us a little perspective,” he said. -he warned.
Clément Torpier, cereal grower and defender of the Young Farmers of Île-de-France
Cereal producer based in Sourdun (Seine-et-Marne), Clément Torpier, 32, has made numerous appearances on television and radio in recent days, defending the demands of his community.
President of the Young Farmers of Île-de-France, the thirty-year-old took over the family farm in 2018, after agricultural studies.
It was by observing the difficulties in setting up young breeders that he wanted to get involved and make the “demographic challenge” his “battle horse”.
Clément Torpier is a cereal grower and president of the Young Farmers of Île-de-France.
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“We must support us on innovation, research, on the question of the security of our income.
We are also experiencing more and more climatic hazards, we must be able to protect ourselves from them.
This is how we will attract new operators,” the young operator had already defended to 20 minutes.
Faced with announcements that he considers insufficient, Clément Torpier called on his members to “remain mobilized for several days, several weeks if necessary”, adding that “Gabriel Attal’s announcements will determine the end of the mobilization”.