From Field to Planet: Geopolitics and the Future of Plants: An Interview with Sébastien Abis

In this episode, Sébastien Abis, a geopolitical analyst, director of Club Déméter, and associate researcher at IRIS (Institute for International and Strategic Relations), helps us make sense of the major transformations taking place in our agricultural and food systems. Amid population growth, climate change, geopolitical tensions, and shifting consumer expectations, food production has never been more strategic—or more complex.
He begins by highlighting a constant in human history: agriculture has always been at the heart of international relations, economic strategies, and climate balance. What has changed is the context. The world of 2026 is no longer the same as it was twenty-five years ago, and the lens through which we view the agricultural world must be resolutely contemporary—without turning our backs on our roots.
He then describes what he calls “the Everest of this century”: feeding a planet of ten billion people while preserving ecosystems, improving health through nutrition, and breaking free from dependence on fossil fuels. Three paths to be pursued simultaneously, with no single model or ready-made solution. A collective, universal challenge that requires both mental preparation and technical equipment—just like a real climb.
Sébastien Abis also reflects on France’s unique position in this global landscape: an agricultural power “abnormally large” for a country of its size, whose strength stems from political will built over half a century. But a power that must now defend its sovereignty against new global players who have “stepped on the gas” in agriculture and food. Not a decline, he clarifies—but a real risk of losing ground if collective coherence were to be lost.
Finally, he reminds us of a truth too often forgotten: too many citizens have severed the link between their plates and those who work the land to fill them. Restoring this link is also a form of positive geopolitics—one that builds security, progress, and community. And agricultural professions, for their part, will never die.
An episode rooted in tradition, yet resolutely focused on the future.