President Emmanuel Macron launched the General State of Food (GSF), an investigation into the French agrifood system in the second half of 2017. Bringing together different food and farming stakeholders, the aim was to combat the various crises in the agricultural sector and work to build a healthy, sustainable and accessible French food system. Laure Ducos reports on how the GSF went and the future of food and farming in France. 

France is an agricultural heavyweight in Europe. In 2014, France was the primary producer, ahead of Germany, Italy and Spain, contributing one fifth of European production. In 2015, France’s active agricultural land represented 52.5% of the country’s surface area. As a comparison, figures for Germany and Poland were 48% and 46.9% respectively.