Abstracts

The west part of Paris metropolitan area is largely dominated by intensive farming and high producing fields where the notion of “local farming” is something uncommon. The links between agriculture and local food distribution are quite distended, even for school catering which is the major municipality policy in those areas.

The way agriculture recreates links between inhabitants/consumers and farmers is something very new in this west Paris region. Some examples could express these new ways to share and show the large innovation process from a high-field production to a local mix-up farm. These new farms are quite different but still remain in a high and intensive production based on cereal crop and oleaginous plants (rape). Farmers look for some diversifications but also new ways to share and interact with consumers. They have created new “sharing spaces” integrating “friendly relations”, agriculture knowledge and new marketing for their products. They also have changed their crop culture by new agricultural techniques in a complete permanent learning.

Throughout two examples of new farmers, we’ll understand the mutation capability for the agricultural-dominant-system in this suburban area of Paris. The case of “La Ferme d’Orvilliers” close to Dreux (70 km away from Paris) will enlighten this “middle alternative farm” and could be the next evolution towards an ecological and local transition for farming. We’ll study these alternatives farms and we’ll see how they cope with a dominant agricultural food system, how they build new relations through two systems, the hyper productive and the local way.