The limited contribution of local food policies in food resilience: The case of French Territorial Food Projects

Abstract

In the context of multiple crises (environmental, health, conflict…) at different scales affecting food systems, i.e. the social-ecological systems within which humans organize themselves to obtain and consume their food, this article examines how local food policies relay a vision centered on food resilience implemented at the scale of international food policies and enable its application. The concept of resilience is currently increasingly used to investigate how food systems operate. This concept highlights a system’s ability to maintain its functions despite disturbances, and scholars identify different types of resilience (robustness, recovery, reorientation). At various levels, calls for making food systems more resilient and sustainable appear, particularly since the Covid-19 crisis, which highlighted the vulnerability of many food systems to the risk of supply disruptions. However, what players and what schemes and initiatives might reinforce the resilience of food systems? Using the case of Territorial Food Projects, which are French voluntary local food policies, we answer the following questions: do local food policies aim to and contribute to strengthening food resilience? If so, what forms of resilience prevail and what type of food systems do they reinforce? We set up our survey in the Nouvelle Aquitaine region, which is a powerful agricultural region on a French and European scale. Our qualitative survey methodology is based on semi-structured interviews with 25 regional food project coordinators in the Nouvelle Aquitaine region, and on participant observation. We carry out a qualitative analysis of our data, based on a resilience analysis grid developed from the scientidc literature, in order to identify the vulnerability factors to which the studied Territorial Food projects aim to respond, the extent to which the objectives and actions underway are meeting the challenges, and what type of resilience they target. The results section of the paper demonstrates that French local food policies can help to strengthen resilience factors in local agriculture in an indirect way. However, they do not enable in-depth, long-term transformation of food systems, due to limited resources and an approach to resilience solely from the angle of robustness and recovery in the face of disruption. In discussion, we emphasize the importance of implementing adaptive and reflexive governance based on territorial integration at different scales, to support the profound reorientation of food systems towards more justice and democracy.