Unlike Germany, France currently hardly needs foreign seasonal workers for the harvest. This is made possible by a new social trend: the townspeople go to the country and roll up their sleeves.
- France is the largest agricultural producer in the EU.
- To ensure that agriculture did not go to waste in the Corona * crisis, Emmanuel Macron's government made an appeal to the population.
- For many French people , working in agriculture is not about money.
Paris - French Agriculture Minister Didier Guillaume had a terrifying vision: what if the largest agricultural producer in the EU could no longer bring in its fruits and vegetables because the Moroccan and Polish seasons were no longer able to cross the closed borders?
But while many EU countries issue special permits for seasonal workers from Eastern Europe, Guillaume chose a different route: he made a desperate appeal to the nation.
France: Agriculture needs workers
French agriculture , the minister said on YouTube, urgently needs 200,000 workers to harvest asparagus and strawberries. "I'm summoning an army of women and men," he declared martially on March 24. Then he launched a website with the curious name "des bras pour ton assiette" - poor strength for your plate.
Guillaume was most amazed at the success of his call: To date, 210,000 helpers have registered - more than needed. One is Louis, 27, an interior designer in Paris . This Thursday he kneels on the ground in a kiwi plantation in Feucherolles (west of Paris) and pulls out weeds. In between, the man with the fashionable short beard says that he followed the "appeal of the 200,000" to escape his 40-square-meter apartment in Paris, but also because he found it important to contribute to the "agricultural autonomy" of his country.
Agriculture in France: French help farmers
"And we can also use the additional income well," adds his girlfriend Irina, a 28-year-old Parisian who ties up branches with an orange-red thread. Working for an hourly wage of twelve euros really gets to the inexperienced. For that, the journey to and from the traffic-free streets is a pleasure, Irina smiles. "Compared to the constant stress in Paris, the work is almost relaxing," she says.
“Here I also realized how important it would be to change our habits and produce locally - because of the virus , but also because of global warming. I, who always thought that all kiwis came from New Zealand, are happy to be able to help produce near my home. ”
Aid to agriculture in France: it's not just about money
The fact that over 200,000 harvest workers in France spontaneously signed up for the field service is not only explained by the additional income and the officially approved freedom of movement. Some neo-harvest helpers have presented their motifs in the newspaper "Le Monde". A bookseller from the greater Paris area wants to "make herself useful" in this dead time, a personnel director from Marseille switches to work for the farmers' network "Terre des liens". A cultural technician from Paris searches classified ads for a sheep farm in the mountains. "Le Monde" is behind it a new "dream of country life" and the corona- fueled "realization that the future lies more in the country than in the cities".
This does not have to mean that the French want "back to nature" 250 years after Jean-Jacques Rousseau . But the movement is unmistakable: More than a million Parisians have turned their backs on the French metropolis and its constraints - neither in New York nor New Delhi is living closer. Many are rediscovering life in the family home that they once left for the big city many years ago.
Thanks to the Corona crisis: French get to know work in agriculture
Others are now getting to know the field work. In Assencières, a rural community in the hilly Champagne region, the Winkler family, who immigrated from Germany three generations ago, hired half a dozen helpers to do asparagus stinging. These include two Poles who come to the estate every spring, a carpenter, a landlady, an unemployed person, a sewerage operator and a nursing student named Charlotte. The 22-year-old lives in the nearby town of Troyes and is preparing strawberry picking in the greenhouse. "It's good to be able to help others," she says. "Here I noticed that I feel at home in the country, partly because I can work with my hands here."
Charlotte has learned to use a chisel - and she knows that the bright green of the barley field is currently too bright because of the lack of rain. With her fiance, who comes from an agricultural family, she wants to found a farm. And not just because of Corona . “Our plan is older than this crisis. But it confirms our intention, ”says Charlotte. "Even if a lot of things become less secure, a lot of things have become clearer to me," muses the young woman. "In any case, everything is changing."
Yes, on the way back to Paris, the motorway radio announces no accidents or traffic jams, but the presence of wild boar on the almost deserted A26. Rousseau would be thrilled.
By Stefan Brändle
France eases curfews and divides the country into green and red zones. A model for federal Germany?
* fr.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.