the territory
Rennes is an attractive medium-size city, the most dynamic in Brittany in terms of food initiatives, with a strong growth of CSA and box schemes. We observe a still-growing number of open-air markets and cooperative shops.
Some local associations organised in a collaborative network are dynamic on raising awareness on agroecological stakes and practices through resource centres or trainings to large publics.
In terms of political support to the agrifood transition, a local food strategy at the city scale was launched in 2014 based on the introduction of organic and local food in the schools catering. A food and agricultural strategy is also emerging at the metropolis scale aiming at supporting organic farming.
In the region the water quality protection is one of the main stakes that lead the local actors to get involved in the agroecological transition. The conventional farming which is largely developed for intensive production like pork and milk in the whole Brittany region generates intense controversies on its environmental impact.
Case study referee
Doriane Guennoc (Terralim)
Other participants
Gilles Maréchal (Terralim)
Catherine Darrot (Institut Agro – external to the project
doriane.guennoc[at]terralim.fr
Territorial food system
Type of region : Mixed urban and rural areas
Approximate size and population
452 000 inhabitants; 700 km²; 640 inhabitants/km²
Increasing population
Type of agriculture
1 farm for 200 inhabitants; average size 60 ha (Ille-et-Vilaine).
Industrialized agriculture (dairy cows and pork; sall scale vegetable farms for direct sales.
Short circuits (and anteriority)
Well developed through diversified types of initiatives. First collective producer shops in the early 90’s.
Generally increasing, particularly during the beginning of the Covid crisis but doubts in this tendency 2 years later.
Main social issues
6,5 % unemployment in 2020.
Strong densification and gentrification, attractivity lead to an increase in the cost of living; inequalities in food access.
Presence of agroecologial systems
Organic agriculture = 13% of the farms, 12% of the agriculture area.
Strong growth of organic farming for almost all the agricultural sectors.
Specific agri-food system dynamics and initiatives (and anteriority)
AMAPs, collective producer shops, open-air market, drive, citizens cooperatives, urban agriculture projects, initiatives for food assistance.
Increasing awareness on the food justice stakes and development of initiatives and debates linked to quality food access.
Agrifood transition
Main stakes for the transition : Water, air and soils pollution / Preservation of landscape forged by dairy farming (hedgerows, apple-growing, biodiversity / food accessibility / food education
Key obstacles to AE transition
Fragmentation and sectorisation of policy-making; influence of lobbies defending conventional agricultural practices; evolution of the Agricultural Chambre role and strategy to support local authorities.
Leading actors in the transition
Local authorities, public institution (Agence de l’eau), But competition or contradictions between them, Some start-ups, Food processing industries for organic products, Huge consumers cooperative (Scarabée biocoop).
Institutionalisation of the agrifood transition
Relocalisation, urban and peri-urban agriculture, local employment, organic/agroecological/conventional; Food as a flag for the whole transition.
Actors excluded from projects
The access to organic food considered as limited for precarious publics. However the urban agriculture projects are oriented towards these publics. An agroecological training toward people in integration is being developed. Woman are largely represented in the agroecological transition projects.
Key initiatives
3 innovative initiatives
You will find here 3 original initiatives, among all those which allowed the transition of the territorial agri-food system and appear on the frieze-trajectory detailed below.
La Prévalaye paysanne
Activist multi-actor project that aims at developing a productive diversified food system in a 450ha urban area originally dedicated to agricultural activities subject to land pressure.
Terre de Sources
Organic products “drive” markets organised by the local organic producers organisation
Brin d’herbe
Pioneer producer market born in 1992 advocating for the maintain of a peasant and agroecological agriculture in the area as well as a fair remuneration for producers
Our approach
As members of the co-ordination group for the methodology, we used and tested all the guidelines proposed by WP3. As they were in a phase of construction we sometimes had to adapt them.
Rennes territory was chosen because on the large amount of information available since the 90s
* partnership with the Agrocampus research team, observing Rennes’ trajectory since the early 2000s and contributing to it
* historic actors and decision makers still involved and available for interviews
* high number of master thesis made on the territorial food system in a systemic perspective
* researches such as the Frugal project
Trajectory
Method
Thus, the material was collected and synthesized by a group of international Master students during a 2months project. They conducted 20 interviews with a wide range of local actors exploring the fields of research, consulting, public policy, activism, food production, and the private sector. The supervision was carried out by the CS referees, a rural sociologist teacher and a researcher from the ATTER project who was initially supposed to come for a secondment. A first draft of timeline and associated guide was delivered. The deliverables will be used to fed the inter-sectorial and multi-actors strategy of local authorities and CSs.
Detailed timeline
The detailed timeline aims at showing the evolution of the agricultural context in Brittany, its influence on the Rennes Métropole agri-food system and to highlight the specific features of this urban area in terms of agri-food transition.
From the post World War period, the agricultural development path was the productivist paradigm. This can be explained by a couple of national and global dynamics as the CAP launched in 1962 or later, the end of the milk quotas system. Farmers have felt the “grow or go” external pressure which prioritized higher production with increasing input-oriented practices (pesticides, fossil fuel-based nitrogen).
However, the mad cow disease crisis marked a turning point. The desire of civil society to emancipate from the agro-industrial model has resulted in the creation of the first farmers’ shop in 1992. Pioneering at the time, these outlets multiplied with the support of the local authority keen to develop local production. In fact, from the 80’s, the main focus for the authorities was to fit agricultural activities into the problematic vision of urban land management and development. The Archipelago model of city planning, which advocated the separation of city centers with agricultural and natural spaces, was approved as a strategic direction for city development in 2000. This model still shapes today the Metropolis landscape. In this context, urban agriculture initiatives are supported by the city of Rennes, whether they are non-professional (association “Vert le jardin” from 2012) or professional (installation of PermaG’Rennes). Water protection is also considered as a main issue at a larger scale. Terres de Sources project aims to support farmers who commit to consider water conservation a central objective of their production system by securing their outlets. In 2014, as part of the city of Rennes’ Sustainable Food Plan, the first school canteen was supplied with products labelled “Terre de Sources”.
As a conclusion, the timeline shows a succession of more or less embedded issues (land use planning, water protection, short supply chains, urban agriculture, collective catering, fight against food insecurity), supported by one or more institutions (city, metropolis, Pays de Rennes, Water Syndicate, etc.), sometimes generating confrontational relationships or, conversely, partnership relations. This invites us to examine more in depth, in an interpretative scheme, the role of the different stakeholders in the various issues mentioned above.
