A conceptual framework for alternative farmers’ strategic choices: the case of French organic market gardening microfarms

Abstract

Alternative farming systems are challenging classical agronomic frameworks because their aim is to promote human and ecosystems welfare rather than profit maximization. The objective of our work was to understand how alternative farmers build their strategic choices. Through a multiple-case qualitative study of 14 organic market gardening microfarms in the northern half of France, we developed a systemic conceptual framework in which strategic decision making is integrated with a wide range of social and environmental aspirations. As these various aspirations can be in tension, it is relevant to consider trade-offs between them to study the viability of alternative farms.

La viabilité du maraîchage urbain à l’épreuve de l’installation professionnelle

“…Le travail d'analyse réalisé autour de ces noeuds vise à mieux comprendre les difficultés associées à la mise en oeuvre et les défis qui se posent lorsque les aspirations des maraîchers (dont le projet s'inscrit dans une volonté d'interagir avec son environnement urbain) se transforment en un système imbriqué de pratiques. Pour chacun des noeuds, les résultats de recherche rendent compte des inévitables adaptations, compromis ou arbitrages (Morel et Léger, 2016 ;Maréchal et Plateau, 2017) concédés par les maraîchers au cours de leur trajectoire d'installation en milieu urbain et questionnent leurs capacités à adopter pleinement des pratiques agroécologiques pourtant à la base des projets. Tableau 1.…”

A Dryland Cropping Revolution? Linking an Emerging Soil Health Paradigm with Shifting Social Fields among Wheat Growers of the High Plains

“…This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved maximize profit (Morel and Léger 2016). However, cropping system intensification can simultaneously improve soil health (Rosenzweig, Fonte and Schipanski 2018;Sherrod et al 2005), and increase net profitability by 25-80% compared to wheat-fallow (Kaan 2002;Rosenzweig, Stromberger and Schipanski 2018), therefore bridging the chasm of profit/environment.…”

Permaculture—Scientific Evidence of Principles for the Agroecological Design of Farming Systems

“…As this principle is also aimed at farm setup and development, it is also necessary to investigate from an economical perspective whether small and slow developing farms are more economically stable. Recent results of a case study in France show that it is possible for one person to earn a living from agriculture with relatively low input (e.g., no motorization) on 0.1 ha when using permaculture [186,187].…”