Stimulate transitions towards sustainable agri-food systems: the contribution of conversion to organic food and farming to analyze dynamics and governance
Résumé
Sustainable agri-food systems' approaches are rooted both in the environmental movements and in the political-economy critique of the contemporary system. Among alternative agri-food systems candidates, organic food and farming (OF&F) covers multiple dimensions and performances, enabling to study conversion as a prototype of transition. We use the multi-level pathways framework to describe the transition process. We first present OF&F as a heterogeneous entity and examine the consequences of acknowledging its diversity.We show that OF&F as a innovation influences the mainstream design of agri-food systems, and we explore the strategies of the actors in charge of its development. We then introduce how different levers can influence types and levels of conversion with actors having diverse expectations to articulate. This raises the issue of temporalities, with short terms adaptations, and long terms transitions. Finally, we introduce the market itself as a composition between sectors and territories. We argue that this diversity has to be kept beyond consensus to build multiple strategies. We represent the initiatives of different networks in the space and the social dimensions, which ask the question of the coexistence of these models. We conclude that the policy level has a prominent role to assume this coexistence.