Page 48 - Biorefinery 2030 Future Prospects for the Bioeconomy (2015)

2 History 15

partnership continued from 1945 with the creation of a single organisation, the
‘Fe ´de ´ration De ´partementale des Syndicats d’Exploitants Agricoles’ (FDSEA—
Marne Department Federation of Farmers’ Unions), presided over consecutively
by two progressive leaders who were very much in favour of modern
mechanisation. The first of these, Marcel Lemaire (1945–1949), combined his
responsibilities as President of the FDSEA with a long parliamentary career and
with other responsibilities such as the presidency of the Chamber of Agriculture, of
the Cre ´dit Agricole of the Marne, the Aisne and the Ardennes etc. Robert Mangeart
succeeded him (1949–1965) and asserted himself as the uncontested leader of
agricultural organisation in the Reims area. Apart from the FDSEA he also presided
over the PROVIDENCE Agricole (1947–1974) and the Bazancourt cooperative
sugar factory (1953–1972) that he helped to set up. The agricultural profession
bears the imprint of this militant farmer who, in addition to the strength of his ideas,
was unshakeably pragmatic and showed great shrewdness in his decision-making.
It is an incontestable fact that the farmers’ union movement in Champagne
played a significant role, through its dynamism and continual pursuit of progress,
in the transformation of “Flea-ridden Champagne” into “Chalk Champagne,” the
national leader in terms of yield per hectare. Furthermore, movements such as the
‘Jeunesse Agricole Catholique’ (JAC – Catholic Young Farmers), which, in 1957,
became the ‘Club des Jeunes Agriculteurs’ (CDJA—Young Farmers’ Club),
contributed to train principled, often charismatic leaders, open to progress and
¸
new ideas, such as Georges Mangeart, Ge ´rard Lapie, Jacques de Bohan, Francois
Pre ´voteau (see below). These were the men who helped to develop the agricultural
cooperative movement in the region.

2.3 From Farmers’ Unions to Cooperatives

It cannot be denied that the union movement was the engine behind the rapid, large-
scale development of agricultural cooperatives in Champagne. In the mid-1920s,
numerous farmers’ unions which, legally, had no right to trade, but which needed to
provide supplies for their members, were led to create cooperative structures to
carry out this task for them.
In 1922, Albert Barre ´, the son of Charles, created the ‘Coope ´rative des
producteurs re ´unis de la re ´gion de Cha ˆlons’ (United Producers Cooperative of the
Cha ˆlons Region), and in 1927, Gustave de Bohan set up the PROVIDENCE
Agricole cooperative, simply as an extension of the Champagne Farmers’ Union.
The agricultural crisis of the 1930s, caused by cereal overproduction, the opening
up of competitive world markets and speculation by wholesale traders, led these
cooperatives to broaden their field of action, buy obtaining the legal right to collect,
store, process and sell their members’ cereals in order to guarantee a healthier and
more profitable market.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the boom in cereal production resulting from the
modernisation of the means of production created tension between operators. The
farmer must store his produce, and it is in his economic interest to have a silo as
close as possible to his farm. For this reason, at the end of the 1960s, the