Summary
In the mid-2020s, beef cattle producers in the Charolais region are facing a multidimensional crisis. Although they play a key role in landscape preservation, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration, these farmers are seeing their economic model falter. Their production units generate very low amounts of added value, making agricultural income extremely dependent on public subsidies. This economic precariousness is exacerbated by socio-environmental pressures that erode the very meaning of their profession: increased vulnerability to climate change, difficult working conditions, and growing criticism of meat consumption. However, these difficulties are not merely temporary. They are rooted in a logic of industrialization of the supply chain and the liberalization of agricultural policies, where increasing herd sizes has not been accompanied by value creation.
Through an investigation conducted in Saône-et-Loire and Nièvre, this book analyzes the crisis and examines the conditions necessary to overcome it, exploring attempts at change, both individual and collective.
The book is intended for the scientific community, professionals in the beef industry, and all those involved in maintaining livestock farming in rural areas.
Read the preface
Table of contents
Foreword by Hubert Cochet (Professor of Comparative Agriculture at AgroParisTech)
Introduction
Behind an iconic breed and landscapes, a production system in crisis
Making this serious crisis an object of study: modus operandi
Reading the crisis of the Charolais agricultural system
Part 1. The origins of the crisis, from the 1950s to the present day
Chapter 1. From mixed farming to the "calf-producing" system
An agricultural revolution in the making, from the late 18th century to the mid-19th century
Decline in the share of mixed farming and early specialization towards beef cattle breeding between the 1850s and 1950s
Relatively diversified production systems where the majority of cattle are left with lean meat (1950-1960)
From the castrated calf to the weaned calf (1960-1980)
Betting everything on the weaned calf (1980-2000)
Weaned calves prepared Italian-style (from 2000 to the present)
Conclusion
Chapter 2. From cut to trim, the beef industry is industrializing
From cut to minced steak: towards mass consumption
Meat becomes a "Fordist" product
Intermediaries forced to consolidate
Conclusion
Chapter 3. Seventy years of the race for calving
An initial increase in the number of cows per worker (1950-1960)
A significant shortening of the production process (1960-1980)
Continued increase in the number of breeding cows and increased weight of some products (1980-2000)
Overcoming the limiting peak workload of calving (from 2000 to the present)
Seventy years of increasing the number of cows per worker: an illustration from the Autunois and Bazois regions
Conclusion
Chapter 4. An increase in volumes at the expense of added value
A very favorable price ratio that encourages increased production (1950-1972)
The beginnings of a crisis marked by the erosion of added value (1972-1992)
Net added value per worker becomes negative (1992 to the present)
Conclusion
Conclusion of Part 1
Part 2. A Deep Crisis
Chapter 5. When work no longer pays
Four types of farms that have maximized the number of calvings per unit of labor
Significant economic difficulties
Conclusion
Chapter 6. Humans and nature, victims of the race to calving
Beef cattle farming: both responsible for and victim of environmental damage
A silent, but very real, social crisis
Conclusion
Chapter 7. The twilight?
Agricultural and market policies that are gradually moving away from supporting the race to calve
A recent and substantial decapitalization
A race to calve that is encountering technical, organizational, and economic limitations
Conclusion
Conclusion of Part 2
Part 3. What paths to escape the crisis?
Chapter 8. Breaking free from the "Calf Mold"
Fattening all or part of the cattle born on the farm
Starting a second animal or plant production
Obtaining better value from lean cattle sold
Mixed results
Conclusion
Chapter 9. Uniting to act
Responding to local demand
Focusing on a niche market
Promoting suckler cow farming as a heritage asset
Conclusion
Chapter 10. Expanding possibilities
Reconnecting with the core principles of agroecology
Reaffirming the role of collective action within human-scale supply chains and networks
Creating the political conditions for a paradigm shift
Conclusion
General Conclusion
Despite rising beef prices, Charolais cattle farming is experiencing a structural economic crisis
The crisis in Charolais cattle farming is not solely economic, it is multifactorial
Solutions to the crisis face numerous socio-technical obstacles
What future for Charolais cattle farming?
Afterword by Dominique Fayard (PhD in History, Associate Researcher at the Rural Studies Laboratory, Lumière University Lyon 2)
Bibliography
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
