Territorial Food Projects in France: a tool for rural innovation and regeneration? - HAL-SHS - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société
Conference Papers Year : 2022

Territorial Food Projects in France: a tool for rural innovation and regeneration?

Abstract

In 2020, the latest French national agricultural censuses show the drastic decline and ageing of the farming population. At the same time, the re-territorialisation of agriculture has been developing, particularly around large cities, with the rise of AMAPs (Association pour le Maintien d'une Agriculture Paysanne in French) for example. In 2014, the French state created a policy to support local farming, farmers’ renewal and local food supply chains: the Territorial Food Projects (TFP), illustrating the rise of the food thematic, at the expense of agriculture in french national and local policies. TFPs aim to adopt a cross-cutting perspective and to integrate urban-rural relationships’ issues. They support territorialized food systems and short food supply chains. They are, first, structured at municipal or regional level, second, based on a shared diagnosis of agriculture and food in the territory between the stakeholders concerned; third on a quality objective in terms of ethics, environment, health, nutrition, etc., and, fourth, on its interconnectedness. This local management allows concerted action between political stakeholders and local food production system actors, thus enable them to produce a coordinated food and agricultural policy at local level. In 2020, local food supply chains have really taken off with the covid-19 pandemic and TFPs have emerged as key policies to meet France's agricultural challenges and fight de-peasantisation. In the framework of the European H2020 project Ruralization, the CNRS team analysed the impact of TFPs on the local development of rural areas. Indeed, this new policy, deeply bottom up and favouring action at the local level, raises questions: what type of agriculture does it encourage? Does it meet farmers' needs? Does it meet the needs of the inhabitants? Does it make food accessible to all? What interactions between urban and rural actors does it promote? And more broadly what kind of local society does it create? Based on several local case studies and reports, the aim of this paper is to understand dynamics and impacts of TFPs on rural regeneration, on farmers’ installation and on agricultural land’s preservation. It aims also to reflect on the limits of this territorial policy and on the evolution of agricultural policies in France.
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Dates and versions

halshs-03821299 , version 1 (19-10-2022)

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  • HAL Id : halshs-03821299 , version 1

Cite

Camille Robert-Boeuf, Nicole Chambron. Territorial Food Projects in France: a tool for rural innovation and regeneration?. Social dynamics in the post COVID age, Oct 2022, Budapest, Hungary. ⟨halshs-03821299⟩
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