It is on the edge of the Loire, in Avril (Nièvre), a small town of less than 250 inhabitants, that for more than forty-five years Alain cultivated his 300 ha of cereals and raised 150 Charolais cows. A life of work on this farm, family property since 1603. “Sometimes, with my teacher wife, we were a little tight financially, but I lived very happily. This job is a passion. »
But if at 70 years old Alain is a tired farmer, it is not only because of these years of turning the land and feeding his animals. “I had prostate cancer linked to the phytosanitary products that I used for years,” says this son of a veterinarian without batting an eyelid. It was five years before retirement. It took nine hours of operation, the crab had been very greedy. Today I am fine. But I live in slow motion. »