In this feature-length documentary, we follow the life of Léonard Giorgis, a farmer's CFC apprentice who does not come from a farming family. Over the course of his 3-year apprenticeship, we see Léonard develop his convictions and his relationship with the farming community. We understand the reasons that led him to this career change, but also the complexity of his path to establishing himself outside the family. Topics that are little known to a large portion of the public in Switzerland are addressed, such as the administrative burden, the institutional determination of farm business models, and the legislative determination of agricultural land-use planning. These scenes from Léonard's life are interspersed with filmed interviews that set the scene for these neopeasants. Christian Pidoux, the head of an agricultural college, reports on the growing number of neo-farming students with no prospect of taking over a family estate. As a rural sociologist, Prof. Contzen speaks about farm transfers and gender inequalities in the farming profession. Prof. Droz and Prof. Forney, rural anthropologists, shed light on contemporary environmental issues and the socio-political context of the Swiss peasantry, in which these settlements are taking place.

The aim of the documentary is twofold. On the one hand, it aims to raise awareness among a non-specialist audience of the decline in the number of men and women working on farms in Switzerland, but also of the renewed interest in working the land among the younger generations who do not come from farming backgrounds. By following one of these neo-farmers over a two-year period, we aim to move away from the rhetoric that portrays them as idealistic or romanticizes them. We prefer to illustrate the ways in which these neo-peasant profiles are experimenting with alternative forms of farming through their agronomic and economic models, while at the same time politicising the limits of territorial development and questioning the contemporary role of agriculture. Their difficulties in setting up their own farms reveal tensions over land ownership, the gap between media romanticization and institutional invisibility, and the friction between environmental conservation and the imperatives of agricultural profitability. On the other hand, the documentary aims to provoke thought and dialogue on these extrafamilial transfers among established farm workers, and to inspire them to pass on their farms to these new arrivals rather than selling or renting their land to existing neighbouring farms. By presenting the strength and diversity of the aspirations that lead them to farming, neo-peasant approaches no longer appear as a dual critique of the existing production model, but as a revaluation of the fundamental nurturing and ecological roles of male and female farmers.

The documentary raises the question of what these neo-peasant settlements could contribute to Swiss agriculture, in demographic terms but also through their diversified outlooks. These neo-peasant trajectories bring about dialogue between an urban world with growing environmental convictions and a farming community that finds itself in an increasingly defensive position. They then become the links between two worlds that tend to crystallise their oppositions, as illustrated by current social movements and the results of recent democratic initiatives. While this neo-peasant movement has recently gained a high profile, particularly thanks to its presence in agricultural schools (OFS, 2023) and its growing media coverage (Heidi, 2024; RTS, 2023; Terre et Nature, 2022), the legislative and economic framework continues to stand in the way of these young, trained farmers. Through a film that adopts the prism of such a protagonist, we want to give a citizen's perspective on the issue of access and reveal the intrinsic links between these neo-peasant settlements and the evolution of our agri-food systems.