Is an alternative to private property durable in agriculture?

Journal title Economia agro-alimentare
Author/s Catherine Macombe
Publishing Year 2021 Issue 2021/1 Language English
Pages 11 P. 1-11 File size 0 KB
DOI 10.3280/ecag1-2021oa11350
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

View article Download Open Access article

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The desire for sustainability calls for new development paths for the agricultural sector. Some suggest creating small to medium size farms, performing agricultural practices that preserve ecosystems, are labour intensive and connected to local markets. New farmers are a necessity in many rural areas, yetthe main obstacle to the settlement of newcomers is access to land. This research suggests an alternative to private property of land, such as experienced by the Foncière Solidaire created by the association «Terre de Liens» in France, which collectively buys land (13,500 shareholders, end of 2019) to lease themto new farmers under long-term basis. The research question is therefore: “Is this alternative to private property of land durable?” Here, durability means the permanence of farms, despite the on-going upheavals. We suggest that the values are the key, and that values leading to everlastingness describe aconception of Justice. To identify whether or not the values describe a conception of Justice in practice, the discourses should be consistent with the six axioms of the Grammar of Justice by Boltanski and Thévenot (1991) when implemented to a Local Common Good (Thévenot, 1993). The whole movement cannot last without the association Terre de Liens being permanent itself. We will highlight that the discourse(official communication) of the Terre de Liens association calls on Justice, being consistent with the six axioms. We  also underpin that the main challenges are the evolution of regulations, and especially the European laws and French annual financial laws, which set the rules for fiscal exonerations and drive agricultural practices. Whatever these evolutions, it is likely that the association would achieve permanence because of the high number of actors (communes searching for farmers, applicants to taking or transferring farms, donors, shareholders) who are federated around its “Fair” raison d’être. Yes, there is a potential for durable alternative to land private property in agriculture.

Keywords: Private property, New comers, Access to land, Collective property

  1. Alim’Agri (2013). Qu’est-ce que l’agro écologie?. Paris: Ministère de l’agriculture et de l’alimentation.
  2. Bloch, A., Kachaner, N. & Mignon, S. (2012). La stratégie du propriétaire: enquête sur la résilience des entreprises familiales face à la crise. London: Pearson.
  3. Boltanski, L. & Thévenot, L. (1991). De la Justification, Les Economies de la Grandeur. Paris: Gallimard.
  4. Brundtland, G. (1987). Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future. New York: United Nations General Assembly. Document A/42/427.
  5. Collins, J.C. & Porras, J.I. (2000). Built to last: successful Habits of Visionary Companies. 3rd edition. New York: Random House.
  6. Caquet, T., Gascuel‐Odoux, C., Tixier‐Boichard, M., Dedieu, B., Detang‐Dessendre, C., Dupraz, P., Faverdin, P., Hazard, L., Hinsinger, P., Litrico‐Chiarelli, I., Medale, F., Monod, H., Petit‐Michaud, S., Reboud, X., Thomas, A., Lescourret, F., Roques, L., de Vries, H. & Soussana, J.‐F. (2019). Réflexion prospective interdisciplinaire pour l’agroécologie. Rapport de synthèse. Paris: INRA.
  7. de Haas, A. (2007). Terres communes: une nouvelle forme de propriété collective. Pour, 195(3), 160-165, DOI: 10.3917/pour.195.0160
  8. EU (2019). Organic farming in the EU, a fast growing sector. EU agricultural market briefs, mars 2019, 13.
  9. Hardin, G. (1968). The Tragedy of the Commons. Science, 162 (3859), 1243-1248, DOI: 10.1126/science.162.3859.1243
  10. Macombe, C. (2003). Ethique et pérennité des exploitations agricoles. Thèse de doctorat en sciences de gestion, Université de Clermont I, sous la direction du Pr. François Blanc.
  11. Mignon, S. (1998). Une approche de la pérennité de l’entreprise. Thèse de doctorat en sciences de gestion, Université de Nice, sous la direction du Pr. Robert Teller.
  12. Monllor i Rico, N. & Fuller, A.M. (2016). Newcomers to farming: towards a new rurality in Europe. Documents d’Anàlisi Geogràfica, 62(3), 531-551.
  13. Ricci, E.C., Banterle, A. & Stranieri, S. (2018). Trust to Go Green: An Exploration of Consumer Intentions for Eco-friendly Convenience Food. Ecological Economics, 148, 54-65.
  14. Rioufol, V. (coord.) (2020). Your land, my land, our land: Grassroots strategies to preserve farmland and access to land for peasant farming and agroecology. Nyéléni. Bruxelles: Nyéléni.
  15. TDL website (2020). -- https://terredeliens.org/-un-mouvement-trois-piliers-.html.
  16. Thévenot, L. (1993). A quoi convient la théorie des conventions?. Réseaux, 62, 137-142.
  17. Walser, M. (1983). Spheres of Justice, a defense of pluralism and equality. New York: Basic Books.

Catherine Macombe, Is an alternative to private property durable in agriculture? in "Economia agro-alimentare" 1/2021, pp 1-11, DOI: 10.3280/ecag1-2021oa11350