Food Territories and Sustainable Agriculture Unit

CESAER's Territoires d'Alimentation et Agricultures Durables unit brings together different approaches in economics, geography, sociology, management and anthropology to examine the agri-food transition and the changes that accompany it. CESAER's research on this issue can be grouped into three research fronts.

1. Farming worlds in agro-ecological transition: tensions, injunctions, bifurcations

This first front explores how the worlds of agriculture can not only maintain themselves but also renew themselves in the context of agri-food transition.

This question relates to the many issues and challenges facing farmers today: producing more and more while preserving life and biodiversity; gaining greater autonomy while technical and administrative standardisation and economic constraints continue to grow; maintaining a diversity of systems despite the expansion of farms. Faced with contradictory injunctions, in a situation where essential resources such as water, soil, energy, land, labour and knowledge are in short supply, many questions are raised. We are working on, but not limited to, the following topics:

• 1.1. Involvement in agricultural work and its normative, practical and discursive redefinition
• 1.2. The renewal of agricultural structures, assets and systems and the issues involved (transfer/takeover/installation)
• 1.3. The agricultural and ecological fabric of territories

2. Analysis of agri-food systems in transition

This second front is devoted to knowledge of agri-food systems and their transitions. The aim is to work on specific segments of the system, or to conduct more holistic and cross-disciplinary research, from upstream to downstream. This front is broken down into three themes:

• 2.1. Intermediary strategy and (new) institutional forms of cooperation in the face of societal demand for transition.
• 2.2. The dynamics of supply chains and local agri-food systems.
• 2.3. Volume and footprint of food supply flows (foodscapes)

3. Design and evaluation of policies to encourage changes in practices

The third front is devoted to the role of the consumer and public policies that can accelerate the transition.

• 3.1. On the supply side, the work focuses on the implementation of incentive policies for farmers and the evaluation of these policies. We are paying particular attention to the evaluation of the economic, environmental and social performance of conventional and certified sectors (organic farming, geographical indications, etc.).
• 3.2. On the demand side, we are assessing the effectiveness of monetary and non-monetary incentives in guiding consumers towards healthier and more sustainable diets. We are also analysing the discourses and practices of eaters in transition.