Les problèmes de l'industrie agroalimentaire: les motivations et les pratiques mises en oeuvre par les initiatives de "circuit-court". Enquête en Province de Liège

Abstract

Over the last two centuries, the emergence of new technologies has profoundly changed the way food is produced, distributed and consumed. Shifting from an agricultural to an agribusiness status, the food system comprises nowadays a multitude of actors which are highly dependent on one another with farmers being the least fortunate. Upwards, the latter depend on a few multinational company owning the seeds and inputs essential to their production. Downwards, a few powerful processers and distributors put pressure on their prices and impose more and more constraints on them. But not only farmers suffer from this evolution. The opacity of the whole food supply chain leaves consumers unaware of the food they eat and conventional farming leads to the destruction of biodiversity and environment as a whole. Thus, a few actors decide to take actions to counter the undesirable effects generated by the food system. By opting for alternative production methods – such as organic farming – and by distributing food directly to final consumers, producers can free themselves from the companies upwards and recoup the added-value they had lost to the benefit of the powerful companies downwards. In a first phase, this thesis introduces the problems of the food sector explaining them through the concept of Market Failures. Then, the concept of Short Food Supply Chains is defined and the organizations falling within its scope are listed and classified. In a second phase, by carrying out a survey in the province of Liège (Belgium), this work seeks to appreciate the diversity of these organizations. What activities do they carry out? What forms do they take? What are the profiles of their creators and members? How do they finance themselves? Then, the link between the profile of the members and creators of these organizations, their motivations – the problems of the food sector they address – and their practices – the actions they take to tackle those problems – is examined. Finally, the consistency between the actions they take and the failures against which they claim to fight is reviewed.