Which geography of agricultural transitions in France? An exploratory approach from organic farming and short food supply chains in the 2010 agricultural census

Abstract

Based on the agricultural census of 2010, this article explores a methodology to identify a statistical field of farms in agro-ecological transition in the French metropolitan context. The work leads to a proposition of a typology of farming systems where the mode of production (organic or not), product marketing, and turnover percentage from direct sales channels are combined. After a socio-economic characterization of the different types of farms, the analysis proposes a fine-scale mapping of geographic combinations of agriculture in transition in Metropolitan France, thereby starting a discussion on the socio-territorial factors in favor of the emergence of one type of transition over another. In the end, the geography deduced by this overall typology of agriculture in transition certainly borrows from explanatory elements of the geo-agronomic context of farms. But it also seems to indicate that the nature of the socio-territorial context in which farms operate influences the forms of agricultural transition. Rural areas that are least dynamic and most marked by the legacy of the productivist model remain in their majority the most resistant to the emergence of forms of transition discussed in this article. Geographical proximity to more affluent social spaces would be a favorable factor for the development of farms in agro-ecological transition.