Comparison of food system transformations in a rural area and a metropolitan rural area

Nicole Mathieu (1, 2) , Viviane de Lafond (1, 2) , Camille Robert-Boeuf (1, 2)

1 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
2 LADYSS - Laboratoire Dynamiques Sociales et Recomposition des Espaces

After having recalled the general trends that mark the evolution of food systems since the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century (changes in production, supply and consumption), we will try to test the hypothesis that this transformation is different depending on the inhabiting mode and the relationship between town and country depending on whether we are in a metropolitan rural area (Ile de France, Plaine de Versailles) or in a department characterized by a settlement system typical of the French model of the 19th century (Mathieu 1996) with towns, bourgs and villages. This difference will be observed and analysed from several points of view: i) the evolution of agriculture: self-provisioning, on-farm cultivation, self-sufficiency, organic farming, on-farm or artisanal small-scale processing of local production; ii) the changes in commercialization systems (supermarkets, small shops, short food chains, etc.) iii) the changes in the food consumption of the inhabitants, their tastes, their expectations regarding the quality of these products (sanitary and taste) depending whether they are rural or urban, or moving between town and country. Particular attention could be paid to comparing the importance of vegetable gardens in the local food system. We will also analyse the question of food for populations that lack food, especially poor populations (isolated women, retirees, migrants) with food aid (associations, secours Populaire, secours catholique, restaurants du Coeur, food bank). We will try to evaluate the place occupied in these two territory-es by the new policy (food plans) supposed to build complementary relations between agriculture and urban policies. We will question the issue that food systems would allow us to identify different types of local society: social links, solidarity, neighbourly relations, conflicts.

Mots clés: Rural; food system transformations; France; food consumption; agriculture

Domaines: Géographie

Nicole Mathieu, Viviane de Lafond, Camille Robert-Boeuf. Comparison of food system transformations in a rural area and a metropolitan rural area. Social Dynamics, inequalities, Integration, Mobility, And Migration, Centre for Social Sciences, Nov 2020, Budapest, Hungary. ⟨halshs-03268469⟩