France, the largest European agricultural power with more than 15% of the EU’s farmland and production, the country that inscribed sitting down for a good meal to the UNSECO world heritage list, is engaged in deep soul-searching about the food it produces, trades and consumes.

When he was elected last spring, President Emmanuel Macron found an industry on the edge, with unprecedented bankruptcy and suicide rates among France’s farming population of half a million. Drought and flood

Successive droughts and floods had decimated the country’s flagship tillage sector, the milk price had crashed, bluetongue and bird flu outbreaks had disrupted the beef and poultry sectors and volatile global prices exposed the French pigmeat industry’s poor competitiveness.

President Macron’s priority was to channel this malaise into a large-scale public consultation, which unfolded through the second half of last year under the stewardship of Olivier Allain, a Breton beef farmer and member of the ruling political party. The Etats-Généraux de l’Alimentation (which could translate as National Food Conference) was a huge undertaking, with more than 80 public meetings around the country, online debates and 17,000 submissions received. Participants ranged from farmers to processors, retailers, consumer bodies, environmental organisations and ordinary citizens.