In her second week at Le Moulin, Sadie meets Jean Violaine, the Moulinards' second mentor (Bruno being the unseen 'Lacombe'). Jean is an elderly, alarmingly thin man who reeks of liquor, wears a ratty sleeveless shirt, and has his trousers belted up to his sternum. Sadie privately develops her own rule: the older and more rural the Frenchman, the higher his pants are belted.

Jean reports from a Federation of Milk Producers meeting in Boulière. Morale among dairy farmers is collapsing because wholesale milk prices fall below production costs, and suicides among breeders are occurring in the Dordogne and Normandy. At the meeting, the union narrowly voted to oppose the megabasins, which the library circle treats as a victory.

After Jean leaves, an argument breaks out. Alexandre and Jérôme criticize Jean for aligning with rural farmers who are racist toward Arabs and foreign workers, who want supermarkets, cheap gas, pesticides, the right to shoot wolves, and no environmental regulations. Sadie inwardly notes the Parisian Alexandre's class condescension and observes that everyone at Le Moulin is white, though refined enough not to be openly coarse.

Pascal rebukes Alexandre and Jérôme, shifting into high oratory. He defends the farmer's desire to work the land as his ancestors did and pass it on to his children, framing environmental regulations as the dictates of unelected Brussels bureaucrats. He argues such policies can only be met by large agro-businesses, forcing small farmers out, and asks whether that is fair.