Histoire de l'agriculture, histoire de l'alimentation, histoire générale

Abstract

[eng] The history of agriculture is sector-based ; it only has an explicative value if considered as a component of general history. The question is therefore to know how to integrate the history of agriculture, and more generally of the agro-food system, into general history. The author's tendency is to define agro-food systems and models linked to production modes or socio-economic systems and he distinguishes four major historical periods qualified by a dominant model : pre-agricultural and primitive economics, pre-capitalist food, agricultural and domestic economics, marketable food economics within the framework of capitalist expansion, agro-industrial economics within a concentrated and internationalized capitalist system. . In the second part, the author illustrates these remarks by analysing the relationship between the history of consumption and the history of agriculture during the 1880-1980 period. [fre] L'histoire de l'agriculture est sectorielle : elle n'a de valeur explicative que dans la mesure où elle est envisagée comme composante de l'histoire générale. La question est donc de savoir comment intégrer l'histoire de l'agriculture, et plus généralement du système agro-alimentaire, dans l'histoire générale. L'auteur s'oriente vers la définition des systèmes et modèles agro-alimentaires liés à des modes de production ou systèmes économiques et distingue quatre grandes périodes historiques qualifiées par un modèle dominant : préagricole et d'économie primitive, d'économie alimentaire agricole et domestique pré-capitaliste, d'économie agro-alimentaire marchande dans le capitalisme en expansion, d'économie agro-industrielle au sein du capitalisme concentré et internationalisé. . Dans une seconde partie, l'auteur illustre ces propos en analysant les rapports entre histoire de la consommation et histoire de l'agriculture dans la période 1880-1980.

Dairy Products and Shifts in Western Models of Food Consumption since 1950: A Spanish Perspective

“…Yes, the spread of milk consumption took place more slowly than in the typical Western European country, and the shift in the model started at least one decade later than was common in Western Europe. However, this chronological qualification is already present in previous works (Malassis, 1997; Grigg, 1995), which have credibly put it in relation to economic backwardness and, it might be added, higher levels of social inequality. More substantially, two new variables emerge as more relevant to the characterisation of both consumption models than has been argued so far.…”

“…When it comes to the second model, and while it is not evident that a trend towards increasing consumption outside the home is one of the latter's central elements (in contrast to, at least in this case, Malassis, 1997), the relevance of age as a factor of segmentation is remarkable. This may not be a radical novelty for some specialists on dairy consumption (Wiley, 2011) or food sociologists (Miele, 2006), but, should this variable be as relevant for other cases as it has been here, it would probably deserve a more prominent role in the characterisation of the current model.…”

“…A food consumption model is a structure that emerges and unfolds through time, finding some internal coherence in the combined evolution of a given set of consumption patterns. Although Malassis (1997) does not offer a systematic presentation of the variables composing his models of food consumption, both his work and the broader literature cited in the introduction suggest that the focus should be on the evolution of three groups of patterns. The first group is of aggregate levels of consumption.…”

“…Even though food history has become a lively field in the last few years (see for instance Claflin and Scholliers, eds., 2012; and Pilcher, ed., 2012), the historical sequence connecting the long-term changes in diet induced by industrialisation and urbanisation with more recent developments in food consumption remains relatively under-researched. The most powerful analysis of that sequence is probably the historical social science work by Popkin (1993), Grigg (1995) and, especially, Malassis (1997). Relying on a quantitative, international approach, this work has established a chronology that is based on what Malassis, in particular, calls food consumption models (see also Fonte, 2002).…”

Estudo do consumo alimentar: em busca de uma abordagem multidisciplinar

“…Malassis 28 (1988) discute a maneira como a história da agricultura e da alimentação poderiam ser integradas à história geral. Segundo esse autor, a análise dos "sistemas agro-alimentares", considerando a produção e o consumo e suas relações com a economia global, poderia fornecer bom esquema para a interpretação da história da agricultura.…”