- While the Agricultural Show opens its doors on Friday in Paris, 20 Minutes met Régis Després, a pig farmer recently installed.
- The former specialist educator left his job to take over the farm that his parents had gradually abandoned because of the agricultural crises.
- Régis Després raises pigs on straw and chickens outdoors, which he sells himself on a short circuit.
He never imagined himself a peasant. Never. Not even when he was a kid and his parents operated the farm on which he grew up in Retiers, south of Rennes. But after spending fifteen years in the city, Régis Després succumbed to the songs of the country sirens. As he neared his forties, the former special education worker announced to his parents that he wanted to set up the family farm to raise pigs. “My father fell from the wardrobe. He had absolutely no idea that I could start again, ”says the farmer, smirking.
Tossed from crisis to crisis, his parents had ended up abandoning exploitation, each taking the path of salaried employment to live. “My father took care of the fields on Saturdays because he liked it and grew up in it. But the farm was going to die, he knew it. It was painful for him, he had spent his whole life here ”.
"The feeling that the peasant lost his hand"
When he decided to take over the business founded by his grandparents who produced milk there, Régis Després did not hesitate and turned to the short circuit. Since 2016, he is the one who cultivates the cereals that feed his pigs. He was also the one who chose the slaughterhouse, the butchers and the processing workshops that make pâtés, sausages, filet mignon and ham from Ferme des Prés. And it is above all him who sets his selling price to restaurateurs and professionals whom he delivers himself every week. "I have the feeling that the peasant lost his hand. We provide him with food, we impose a sale price on him. He decides nothing. ”
When he started, the young farmer never imagined seeking a contract with the Cooperl, the pork juggernaut established in Brittany with which his parents have dealt for years. “I couldn't see myself going into debt to bring everything up to standard. I don't think I would have been happy. But I especially don't want to pass judgment on the other models. Everyone makes their choice. There is not just one agricultural model, there are several, ”insists the former educ'spé.
Chickens for a warm winter
In addition to raising pigs on straw, Régis Després has been welcoming chickens for several years, which he raises outdoors, on the same model as his pigs. An additional workload but which allows him to spend the winter more serenely, when his pork is less in demand. With his animals, the breeder manages to make a "small salary" but still has to rely on his mother, who regularly helps him, and on Lucie, his young apprentice.
If he claims "reasoned agriculture", the Breton peasant hopes one day to no longer have to process his cereals at all to switch to an organic model. "But real, local, not organic from Spain". He is not there yet. “If I go organic, I lose half of my crops. I will have to buy some. I have already asked my restaurateurs if they would follow me if I was two euros more expensive per kilo but I went organic ”. And the answer was no.
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- Rennes
- Pork producers
- Food
- Pork
- Organic agriculture
- farmers
- Agricultural centre
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