The author traces back the development of agricultural economics in France through his own personal history, first as a young executive in a newly established research center, then, latter on, as a political advisor of the ministry of agriculture. He tells his disarray in face of the paucity of available statistical figures, and of the narrow mindedness of the agricultural though during the fourties and the fifties. He explains how, with a few other young colleagues, he rediscovered the old debate on the legitimacy of the individual farm. He criticizes the exagerate importance of normative works, which, too often, are not based on a comprehensive economic analysis. Finaly, he evokes his implication in contemporary problems, especially, the definition of the role of the state in a market agricultural economy, a problem which is the key issue in the present Uruguay round GATT négociations.