When summer becomes the season of all dangers, long live solidarity!

Every year, we eagerly await summer. Typically associated with vacations, relaxation, and lazing around, the "beautiful season" holds great promise for our farmers. Most of the harvest takes place between June and September, with the grain harvest, fruit picking, milking of mountain or summer milk, and, of course, the grape harvest.

Yes, but here's the thing: global warming has arrived, with its trail of sudden changes and their sometimes disastrous consequences. For many farmers, summer has become a season of anxiety, where the next weather shocks are dreaded daily. Because these are no longer mere whims of the weather, but often a series of increasingly frequent events: violent storms, hail, and floods compete for the spotlight with droughts and the resulting water stress, which affects all plants.

In some regions, this year again, wheat, barley, and rapeseed ripened at the same time, under the pressure of hot, dry weather. Imagine the headache for the cereal grower when it comes to doing in a few days the work that the harvester is supposed to do in three or four weeks... And what about those grains that have been scalded, with the penalty being a drop in yield and quality, such as their precious protein content: it's a double whammy for turnover.

What about the tonnage and size of the fruit in the orchards? What will the 2023 vintage of our wines be worth, with vines successively dehydrated, hail-damaged, or attacked by mildew, as in 80% of Bordeaux? What forecasts can we make for our cheese production, given the plummeting milk yield of our cows, goats, and sheep, deprived of grass or overcome by the heat? Not to mention the difficulty of watering our livestock when water from wells and rivers runs out...

In this meteorological lottery, fortunately, not everyone is affected. And good harvests seem to be on the horizon for many of your hosts. But from now on, summers follow one another and are similar, with their share of calamities not always covered by expensive insurance, far from it. The "beautiful season" has become a very "strange season"...

The summer season is now a time of great danger for many of your hosts in the France Passion network, who face adversity and uncooperative nature with courage and dignity. We are therefore proud of the solidarity you show them during your visits to their farms or properties, proud of your contribution to supporting all these family businesses that welcome you almost year-round. On behalf of all of them, we sincerely thank you.

The France Passion Team