The Industrial Agriculture Debate

Industrial-scale agriculture occupies an uneasy position in French rural life. The vast wheat fields of Beauce, operated by farms exceeding 1,000 hectares, represent agricultural efficiency. These operations feed France and generate export earnings. Yet they also embody what critics see as agriculture's wrong turn - monocultures dependent on chemical inputs, divorced from local communities, treating land as mere production unit.

Laurent Mercier manages 800 hectares near Chartres with two employees and arsenal of machinery worth millions. "People think we're industrial, not real farmers," he says, surveying wheat fields stretching to the horizon. "But my family has farmed here for centuries. We're using different tools, but the challenges - weather, pests, markets - remain."

Mercier practices what he calls "precision sustainability." Variable-rate application technology ensures fertilizers and pesticides go only where needed. Cover crops protect soil between cash crops. Buffer strips along waterways filter runoff. "We produce food for millions efficiently," he argues. "Small farms are beautiful, but they can't feed the world."

Yet even large-scale farmers face pressures. Volatile commodity prices, increasing regulation, climate uncertainty, and public criticism take their toll. Mercier's son studies renewable energy, seeing more future in solar panels than wheat. "Maybe the land will grow electricity instead of grain," Mercier muses, not entirely joking.