In the middle of Saint-Jean, on June 24, the Minister of Culture and Communications, Nathalie Roy, announced the legal designation of artisanal milling as part of Quebec’s intangible heritage. While the national festivities were going full swing, the artisan-millers were raised to the rank of bearers of a “source of collective pride”. In other words, a designation drowned in a blue and white party, far from worthily emphasizing the traditional know-how of a dozen artisan-millers who carry their historical practice breathlessly!
If there was reason to rejoice, the day after the announcement, the reception of the community was rather perplexed. After seven years of waiting since the filing of the application for designation by the Corporation du moulin Légaré, in 2015, we had had time to hope for more than a simple online press release.
Beyond the “recognition and [la] development” of the practice, it is a concrete manifestation of commitment that the community has the right to expect for the future preservation and transmission of artisanal milling. The reaction of the director of the Conseil québécois du patrimoine vivant, Antoine Gauthier, expressed it unequivocally: “The designation must not be a symbolic act with a necessarily limited media scope, nor be centered on the history […] but a catalyst towards structuring national development projects. »
This celebratory announcement is not enough to support the importance of preserving the practice in the future.
Solution of the past for the future
Beyond the folklore pride of a historical heritage, the craftsmen-millers are also carriers of the future. As guardians of an alternative solution to our globalized production system, their role is to be considered! By contributing to rural economic vitality and enhancing local resources, artisanal milling embodies a model of industry at the service of its territory.
Moreover, by relying on mechanical engineering using primary, natural and renewable driving energies – water and wind – and essentially made of wood, cast iron and leather, the mills embody perfect examples of sustainable development. This pre-industrial technology offers a necessary counterpoint to our current high-tech and fossil fuel-dependent machines.
By their principle of milling on stone wheels, they also support consumer health by offering a naturally living flour free of additives or preservatives. Finally, their small-scale production tends to reconnect with the principle of short circuit, whose benefits for the climate are already being touted. Far from being a backward-looking nostalgia, artisanal milling presents itself as a possible solution from the past to the economic, social and environmental challenges of our century.
Quebec’s commitments
In coherence, a range of government commitments binds Quebec to a future made up of more local purchasing, local economy and sustainable development. As proof, the 2020-2023 Strategic Plan of the Ministère de l’Économie et de l’Innovation affirms, regarding local purchasing and production, that it is “a way that will support the Ministry [de l’économie et de l’innovation] over the next few years”.
In addition, in Investissement Québec’s 2020-2022 action plan for the occupation and vitality of territories, we can read the need “to grow long-lasting traditional industries” and to “preserve this regional diversity which makes up our identity and which contribute to our prosperity”.
As for Quebec’s 2018-2025 biofood policy, its objective is, among other things, to support the development of initiatives related to local marketing and gourmet tourism. So many work sites for which the government and the milling community have every interest in working together.
While waiting for concrete measures to be taken by the government, and on the strength of the community’s dynamism to ensure its survival, the Conseil québécois du patrimoine vivant announced during the last edition of the Journées des moulins du Québec, on 1er last July, the establishment of a first professional training in artisanal milling for the winter of 2023.
While the survival of the milling trade today depends on a handful of artisans, this will aim to train a first cohort of apprentice millers across Quebec. This is an essential first step. Artisanal milling is a reserve of hope for the rest of the world that deserves more than a press release obscured by the noises of Saint John.