Amalgams on Amap

In their article on “ Agricultural self -sufficiency of cities, a vain utopia ? », André Fleury and Roland Vidal ask the question of the relevant scale to think of food self -sufficiency. They insist on the complexity and ambivalence of the concept of self -sufficiency by showing that, sometimes, “ scale ecology joins the economy of scale And that production near consumption are not always the most rational, or most reasonable choice, in ecological matters. From this salutary observation, they choose to criticize the “ Vaines utopias “,” city ​​dreames “And the illusions” nostalgic »Supporters of self -sufficiency,” short circuits Or experiences of the AMAP type (associations for maintaining peasant agriculture). These are disqualified in too brief final sentence, as experiences “ If requested by city dwellers and so little by the Ile -de -France farmers ». The two authors also seriously warn the reader against the temptation of “ A step back that would reject what modernity has brought to humanity and its power system ». But this recourse to the spectrum of barbarism does not seem very convincing either: the AMAPs or the new temptation to return to the candle in a way ! In their article, the multiple experiences of short circuits appear to be the last manifestation of the illusion of idle city dwellers, locked in the nostalgia for an idealized campaign.

The analyzes of these two agronomist engineers are relevant and useful: they show the complexity of current issues as well as the ambivalence of links between urban spaces and their rural periphery. But to achieve this informed observation, was it necessary to caricature the only civic experiences trying to take the problem of the organization of the food system. ? Other works, which the two authors do not mention, highlight more nuanced conclusions and underline the potential of the “ short circuits »For the emergence of sustainable agricultural practices.

The diversity of short circuits

According to the two authors, the only useful function of “ short circuits “Would be to build” A new cultural relationship between the city and the agricultural world “, And” Remember the distended social bond between farmers and city dwellers ». Besides that one can wonder about the nature of this supposed “ cultural relationship », Bringing back the current reflections on these experiences to this one appearance seems very simplifying. This analysis ignores the richness and diversity of alternative food distribution systems. The only empirical example cited is that of the tomatoes produced in London, from which the authors show that the AMAPs and the short circuits would lead to ecological aberrations and that it is ultimately better to import the tomatoes of Spain.

Alternative food distribution systems are actually very diverse and complex: there are different forms of direct sales (Farmers Marketsale or picking to the farm), associations between producers and consumers (cooperatives, Community supported agriculture – CSAAssociations for the maintenance of peasant agriculture – AMAP), forms of direct production by consumers (community or school gardens), municipal or territorial structures and administrations for food supply and distribution (Food Policy Councils, Food Security Safety Nests). This profusion of experiences and initiatives is also part of the current renewal of the sociology of agricultural modernization. He has aroused recent quality work that allows you to better understand them.

Alternative market relations

These experiences cannot be analyzed from the only technical point of view, they are above all political forms which aim to redefine market relations. The challenge of these multiple initiatives of associative origin is to respond to the lack of infrastructure for distributing fresh products in disadvantaged neighborhoods, to question the construction of the quality of the products, to reflect on the right to food And on the forms of local democracy in the era of globalization. Recall that the experience of AMAP finds its roots in the system of teikei Japanese, born in the 1970s in response to the country’s accelerated modernization of the country and the deterioration in the quality of food products. This cooperative system then spread in community experiences of the 1970s in Germany before developing in North America in the 1980s under the name of CSA (Community supported agriculture). In France, this system is very recent since it was not imported from the United States in 2001. Today, almost a thousand AMAP would exist in France. Far from being limited to a few circles of the Parisian urban bourgeoisie, the AMAPs were first born in the PACA region where they are always the most numerous. The sociology of members also shows that these are social backgrounds with a level of diploma and qualification above the national average, and that it was often city dwellers who have kept a strong link with the campaign, or even with The agricultural world.

Unlike what the two authors seem to think, the supporters of short circuits experiences generally do not consider them as an alternatives immediately viable for all, and likely to replace in the short term the dominant production/distribution/consumption system. The path will necessarily be long, complex, and debated. Rather, these experiences aim to challenge the current production and distribution system, to amend it, to make it evolve in other directions by showing its aporia and its weaknesses. It is rather, and more modestly, of “ New ways of defining the relationships between producers and consumers likely to call into question essential aspects of this system such as long -distance exchanges, homogenization of products or their detachment of premises and conditions of production production ». The ambition of supporters of “ short circuits »Thus consists more in defining new, original, disruptive trajectories of current dominations and aporia of the food production system.

The questions posed by these experiences are ultimately multiple and rich. Can they transform power relations into the global food system ? Are they likely to introduce new forms of citizenship and democracy ? The production processes of food production and consumption claimed by these systems carry social equity ? What changes do they induce in the relationship between societies and natural areas ? Faced with the industrialization and the growing standardization of products leaving the agrifood system, are these experiences carrying a process of consumer requalification ? If it would be absurd to idealize these experiences, or to make them unsurpassable panaceae, it is just as much to caricature them in the name of a supposed “supposed” Utopia ». The question of food autonomy and resistance to productivist and globalized agro-business deserves better than the condescending criticism that is sometimes addressed to them.