economics

This book focuses on opportunities and challenges in implementing a bioeconomy strategy from a research and education perspective. It draws on contributions presented during the 30th EURAGRI annual conference held in Tartu (Estonia) in September 2016, as well as on other workshops organised as part of EURAGRI.

How do we face up to the issue of sustainable water management in major cities, be they in developed or emerging countries? This book compares situations in Brazil and France in considering the institutional, historical, economic and social aspects of water management.

Set up during the food crisis in the aftermath of the Second World War, France's National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) was founded on the notion that public scientific research into the management of life in all its multifarious forms would be of major importance for rebuilding France’s position in the world. This book, based on original documentation and testimonies of the main protagonists, explores the 70 years of the institute’s life, focusing on the interactions between science and politics.

Following the trip to France by the 2009 Nobel Prizewinner in Economic Sciences, Elinor Ostrom, the authors of this work set out her teaching based on her direct interactions with the public. It is an entire critique of conventional economic theories that is expressed and a renewal of social sciences thinking that is taking place. Elinor Ostrom developed an alternative path to the State and the market in her work and experiences; this targeted desirable trajectories for the social and ecological systems.

Contrary to certain perceived ideas, man has not destroyed the biological diversity in Metropolitan France but has transformed and enriched it. Deforestation, agriculture, developments of water courses and wetlands and introductions of species have created artificial environments, managed for our varied uses. Up to what point can we control the dynamics of this nature, subject to a variety of constraints such as new agricultural practices, urbanisation and global warming? Is not the biodiversity governed as much by the expectation of citizens as by scientific ecology?

Avec le parrainage de l'Académie d'agriculture de France

For the past fifteen years or so, the “short supply chains” in marketing food products are reappearing extensively in France. Helped by food crises, today's consumers want to know where their food comes from and how it has been produced. The book answers clearly practical questions raised - where can I find these products? Are they more expensive, do they taste better? What is the difference between an AMAP (association supporting small farming) and a farm shop? What is the environmental impact? Eat locally: ultimately, is this or is this not a “good idea”?

Consult Nicolas Hulot's foreword

North Africa and the Middle East are marked by their growing dependency on agricultural imports. This dependency is said to rise globally and reach extreme levels, particularly under increased climate change. This publication examines the future of the agricultural and food systems in these regions circa 2050, using various scenarios arising out of demand for food supply.

This work provides a synthesis of recent research on the evolution of agriculture and food in a capitalist system. It is based on approaches not well-known in France such as international political economy and ecological economy.

It studies agricultural processing in terms of ecology, history and geopolitics and traces specific aspects of agriculture and food in the 21st century. Lastly, it proposes theoretical approaches with a view to renewing the agricultural economy.

This book deals with the transition from current agricultural and food systems towards sustainable ones. The issue is viewed from a number of different angles within the realm of social sciences (management, economics, sociology, anthropology and philosophy). The book provides food for thought and discussion around the following questions: What is the future model that today’s food system could or should be striving towards? What is the path that this transition could or should take?

This book focuses on innovation in the agri-food system and the new paradigm drawn by bioeconomic approaches and principles. It draws on contributions presented during the 29th EURAGRI annual conference held in Luxemburg (September 2015) as well as on other workshops organised as part of EURAGRI. EURAGRI works as a platform of exchange and discussion on topics of common interest pertaining to the organisation, orientation and outlook of agri-food research in Europe in connection with global changes.