Pratiquer l’agriculture en temps de pandémie : sens et reconnaissance au travail des néo-agriculteurs québécois

The current health crisis has, among other things, reopened the debate on the hierarchy of trades, particularly on the so-called "essential" trades. Among them, small organic farmers have been put forward, as the pandemic has revealed the inescapable nature of their trade and, faced with the dependence of globalized markets, the need to relocate Quebec agriculture. By seeking to understand what the pandemic is doing to agriculture, this article gathers the point of view of small-scale organic farmers on their profession in the light of the current crisis, taking care to select those who operate on a small scale and who have made a transition to agriculture as a new lifestyle choice. Between March and November 2020, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 farmers who are now market gardeners, livestock farmers, winemakers or maple syrup producers, who, whether or not they are labeled, all practice farming with organic processes. For these producers who, long before the pandemic, saw agriculture as a means of bringing meaning back into their lives, the social mission they give to their work has not been disrupted. Nevertheless, by bringing it to the forefront, the crisis has made it possible to rethink the relationship between agriculture and society.