MODEF

The Movement for the Defense of Family Farmers (Mouvement de défense des exploitants familiaux, MODEF) is a French agricultural union founded in 1959.

History

Foundation

On 7 April 1959 approximately forty farming activists from southern and central French departments, primarily from tenant farmer and viticulture sectors of the FNSEA, gathered in Toulouse to establish a coordinating body. This initiative led to the creation of the Movement for the Defense of Family Farmers.

The founders were described as socialists, like Nègre; communists, like Soulié; anarcho-communists, like Raymond Mineau; or simply activists for social progress. Their goal was to break definitively with the FNSEA, then the sole agricultural union, by forming a dissident union movement that would focus on family farms.

The organization drew inspiration from the struggles of tenant farmers in Allier in 1900 and the 1907 vineyard workers' strike in the South. In a country still home to 2 million farmers, MODEF aimed to defend small family farms against large landowners who advocated for industrialized agriculture and farm consolidation—a trend emerging within the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Evolution of MODEF

During the 1970s and 1980s, MODEF gained prominence, challenging FNSEA dominance in professional elections across several regions, particularly in the southwest, center, and southeast of France. However, the decline of small farms in the 1980s weakened MODEF’s electoral base among smallholders, relegating it to a marginal role in northern France. It remains entrenched in regions specializing in small-scale cereal farming, livestock, viticulture, fruit, and vegetable production, as well as in overseas departments like Martinique and Guadeloupe.