Walk through a field of locally reproduced wheat varieties, with Olivier Ranke, farmer at the Bergerie de Villarceaux. Photo: Adèle Violette

A beacon of sustainable agriculture, organic farming is lauded as better for people, soils, and ecosystems.

But as it has grown, the EU organic sector increasingly resembles the conventional farming system it was supposed to challenge; adopting monocultures, simplified crop rotations, or the general use of conventional seed varieties under derogation. Today, faced with falling sales, price volatility and increasing climate-related risks, the system is showing structural weaknesses and struggling to adapt. As a result, many organic farmers find themselves at a crossroads, with a growing number choosing to back out, and abandon certification altogether.

This situation highlights the urgent need for a new transition—one that embraces a holistic vision of farming, where complexity and diversity take centre stage. But the question is: what is needed to support a broader shift? And what lessons can we draw when it comes to making current EU policies fit for purpose?

To dig into this, Seeds4All visited the Bergerie de Villarceaux in Val d’Oise, France. A pioneering initiative, the farm is living proof of the agroecological transition in action—and of the power that substantial investment combined with a robust plan towards autonomy can have in creating economically and environmentally viable diversified farming systems.

Authors: Adèle Pautrat & Natasha Foote

Owned by the Fondation pour le Progrès de l’Humain (FPH, a long-time supporter of ARC2020) since 1976, the Bergerie de Villarceaux spans 650 hectares, including 400 hectares of arable land.

Drawing: courtesy of the Bergerie de Villarceaux.

Until the early 1990s, the site hosted a conventional farm focused on cereal monoculture, jumping on board the industrialisation train. But, amid growing doubts about the viability of such a system, in 1995, the Foundation launched and funded an ambitious agroecological transition project aimed at redesigning farming systems to meet climatic, environmental and social challenges.

A transdisciplinary team – led by agronomists Matthieu Calame, Philippe Cacciabue, and Olivier Ranke – worked to define and assess farm sustainability, and identified the guiding principles necessary to achieve economic and environmental stability.

Early on, two core concepts shaped their prototype for a new kind of agriculture: autonomy (from synthetic inputs and volatile markets) and resilience (through diversity and ecological integration).

As a self-financed experiment, the Bergerie’s transition benefitted from full decision-making autonomy, allowing the farm to chart its own course free from the constraints of conventional subsidies. This allowed it to make its first big decision: to move away from other chemical inputs.

First up: fertilisers. The team reintroduced nitrogen-fixing legumes into the fields and meadows, both to enrich the soil and to feed the Bergerie’s newly arrived herd of Salers cows. These grazers, in turn, returned nutrients to the land through manure and managed grazing. The result? An organically farmed, mixed crop-livestock system that now runs on an 8-year rotation, entirely free from synthetic fertilisers.

Olivier Ranke (right), still a farmer at the Bergerie, showed us a plot of alfalfa (left), as well as a diverse sowing of triticale, spelt, and broad beans (centre). Photos: Adèle Violette

Diversity also proved to be the key ingredient of success in reducing pesticide use. By mixing crops and pairing species in ways that mimic natural ecosystems, the Bergerie found that dense plant cover could smother weeds and ease the scramble for nutrients. Pairings with varied root depths or nutrient needs also helped break pest and disease cycles.

By the early 2000s, the farm had diversified beyond its main crop—wheat—and expanded production to include oats, spelt, lentils, fava beans, and triticale. Today, the Bergerie cultivates some 15 different cereal and legume species, each carefully selected to enhance ecological balance.

The wheat crop has also diversified: the farm now grows 11 varieties of wheat, many of which are heritage strains bred and adapted on-site for resilience and yield.

But the most striking shift was in the landscape itself. Between 1995 and 2013, vast monoculture fields were broken into smaller plots of around 7 hectares, bordered by hedgerows, grassy strips, and agroforestry systems. These changes created a rich mosaic of habitats that supports nature’s own pest control—and helped seal the Bergerie's official transition to organic certification in 2001.

In addition to the hedgerows bordering the cultivation plots, which can be seen in the photos above, the Bergerie has more recently been experimenting with intra-plot agroforestry with fruit trees. Photos: Adèle Violette

It may be tempting to attribute the Bergerie’s success to its unique private funding structure. But while the financial backing was a core part of its story, it is far from the full picture.

The farm’s choices meant swimming against the tide—and, crucially, losing out on subsidies. In the 1990s, as farmers were pushed by the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to adopt chemical-intensive monocultures and pull out hedgerows, the Bergerie was doing the opposite. It was a bold decision that cost the farm thousands of euros in public supports.

Meanwhile, unlike with EU subsidies, the Foundation’s vision from the start was for the farm to find a way to stand on its own two feet. When Olivier Ranke was appointed farm manager in 2006, he was granted free access to the land and infrastructure for 25 years, on condition that he adhere to a strict set of agroecological principles. His task was to determine whether a farm built around autonomy and resilience could thrive without major financial support.

Ten years on, the answer appears to be yes. A 2014 study found that the system’s economic viability came not from cutting corners, but from cutting inputs. High labour costs were offset by lower reliance on chemicals, added value from organic products, and insulation from the price swings of conventional markets.

The farm has continued to evolve. Most recently, a new 10-hectare vegetable unit was launched, led by two young growers, Julien Pedrot and Antonin Deshayes, posing here with one of their regular interns. They lease the land at a low rate, supported by an interest-free loan from the Foundation for greenhouse infrastructure. Photo: Adèle Violette

Though no longer involved in daily operations, the Foundation remains a key enabler—plugging a gap in public policy. The Villarceaux experiment not only shows that diversified organic systems work; it demonstrates the support they need to take root in a world shaped by industrial agriculture.

The Bergerie is like a glimpse into an alternative universe, where for the past three decades a third of the EU budget has invested in diversity and autonomy for farmers, instead of standardised industrialisation and reliance on external inputs.

While we know this is (sadly) not the case, there are striking parallels to be drawn here between the support the farm received from the Foundation and the current system of subsidies.

With the CAP support structure once again up for review, for an optimist the Bergeri's project offers living proof of the power that well-directed subsidies with a focus on growing diversity can have in driving the change that is needed, filling the gaps where extra financial support is needed.

The Bergerie also offers a masterclass in helping farmers step back from supports without pulling the rug out entirely. It stayed present as a safety net for new ventures and innovation, while encouraging long-term independence.

That’s a lesson the EU has yet to learn – and one that farmers are about to learn the hard way, as the bloc tightens its budget to meet growing geopolitical demands, with cuts to the CAP expected in this next funding round. The Bergerie’s experience underscores a harsh truth: by keeping farms dependent on subsidies for so long, we’ve left them dangerously exposed just as the safety net begins to fray.

And, for a more pessimistic reading, it is also clear that the questions the Bergerie was answering three decades ago remain, for the most part, unanswered in our EU policy structures today.

For example, our current subsidy system continues to reward laggards, not sustainable leaders. The pioneering farmers who opted for organic and diversified practices back in the 1980s and 1990s have lost out twice – they received no support then and hardly any more today, as their transition is complete. On the other hand, conventional farms have benefitted twice – once from the first industrialisation movement, and today from subsidies that reward rarely more than token ecological efforts.

To add insult to injury, those who are pursuing sustainable practices are penalised twice: they not only miss out on public funding but also have to pay out of pocket for annual inspections and certifications.

Controlling the weeds that often invade fields (left), and constantly monitoring soil quality (right) are key elements of chemical-free farming. Photo: Adèle Violette

Another core lesson from the Bergerie is that resilience comes from diversity and complexity. Yet the path being forged by EU policy is now one of simplification and reductionism, cutting away at the EU’s green ambitions and compartmentalising solutions in boxes.

This is especially important now as the cracks we have papered over in industrial agriculture are laid bare by vulnerabilities in the food chain. Take, for example, the recent announcement that the EU plans to impose steep tariffs on Russian and Belarusian fertilisers and agricultural products.

There is a glaring lack of ‘food systems’ thinking. If diversified farming systems are to thrive, support cannot stop at the farm gate. Strengthening the sector means investing in the entire food chain, including processing, local markets, and consumer education.

This must start from a chronically overlooked but critical element of the food system – seeds. As Olivier Ranke explained as we walked through his fields, growing such a diversity of crops at the Bergerie meant they had to develop early on dedicated infrastructure for sorting and storing the wide variety of seed shapes and sizes harvested every season. Autonomy, in this case, was imposed, as this kind of infrastructure was (and largely still is) absent from regional agricultural cooperatives.

This example underscores the urgent need for a profound shift in European agricultural policy—from the long-dominant logic of simplification to the more sustainable goal of diversification.

Diversification at the Bergerie also means the presence of a herd of Salers cattle and the cultivation of vegetables in complex crop rotations. Photos: Adèle Violette

Farmers cannot carry the burden of transition alone, especially when demand remains volatile and infrastructure for diversified products is lacking.

The experience at the Bergerie de Villarceaux makes this clear: its success does not hinge on farming practices alone, but on a broader ecosystem of support that, over time, reduces dependence on external inputs, and helps build a model that is –ecologically and economically– more balanced and self-sufficient.

What’s needed now is a holistic vision, one that frames agroecology as a system, not a simple set of tools, and aligns funding models accordingly. Piecemeal policies will not cut it. Only by backing the full chain, from producers to consumers, can we build a resilient, truly sustainable food system.