Le rôle de la distance dans l'organisation des pratiques et des paysages agricoles : l'exemple du fonctionnement des exploitations laitières dans l'arc atlantique

International audienceIn the areas with a dairy production and in a hedgerow landscape surrounding, the farms appear as the elementary units of the structuration of rural spaces and landscape. The study of the logics of organization of the farmers' practices thus appears as a pertinent grid to analyse the dynamics of the transformations of agricultural spaces and landscapes. For the dairy farms of the Western Atlantic Europe, the factors linked to the morphology of the fields play a dominating part (plots pulverization, acreage of the farm). From this angle, the analysis of the part played by the distance of the fields from the farm buildings itself as far as the organization of the farmers' practices is concerned, takes on a central place. How can we take this distance into account and measure it too?The methods coming from the development of the Geographical Information Systems bring along, in this field, interesting advances. Making a grid based on distance criteria to read farmers' practices highlights the diversity of land use organization of dairy farms in various agricultural and spatial contexts (Galicia, Normandy and England). This diversity then sends back to the dynamics of changes of agricultural systems relating to the land concentration (increase of the farms' size, land consolidation), relating to the production system (specialization, intensification) and relating to the farms functioning (mechanization, automation, development of cooperative societies).Dans les régions laitières et bocagères, les exploitations agricoles sont souvent considérées comme les unités élémentaires de structuration de l'espace et du paysage rural. L'étude des logiques d'organisation des pratiques des agriculteurs apparaît ainsi comme une grille d'analyse pertinente des dynamiques de transformation de ces espaces et de ces paysages. Dans les exploitations laitières de l'Ouest Atlantique, les facteurs liés à la morphologie parcellaire (pulvérisation spatiale des parcelles, surface de l'exploitation) jouent un rôle prépondérant. Dans cette perspective, l'analyse du rôle de l'éloignement des parcelles par rapport au siège d'exploitation dans l'organisation des pratiques des agriculteurs revêt une place centrale. Comment prendre alors en compte et mesurer cet éloignement ? Les méthodes issues du développement des systèmes d'information géographique apportent, dans ce domaine, d'intéressantes avancées. La construction d'une grille de lecture des pratiques des agriculteurs, suivant le critère de la distance, permet en effet de mieux comprendre la diversité des modes d'organisation spatiale des exploitations laitières, et ce, dans des contextes agricoles et territoriaux très variés (Galice, Normandie et Angleterre). Cette diversité renvoie enfin aux dynamiques de transformation foncières (agrandissement, remembrement), productives (spécialisation, intensification) et fonctionnelles (mécanisation, automatisation, développement des organisations sociétaires) des systèmes agricoles

SCALES: An Original Model to Diagnose Soil Erosion Hazard and Assess the Impact of Climate Change on Its Evolution

International audienceSoil erosion is a major and growing cause of soil deterioration in many European countries. The main issue is that we must no longer consider soil as a renewable natural resource. Whatever the scale of intervention, the territorial structures need to have spatially spread information in order to overcome or prevent soil erosion. In this regard, maps of erosion hazard constitute essential documents. Our goal was multiple when we developed SCALES model. Firstly, the point was to prove that it was reasonable to foresee a regional scale model and map while we have detailed local scale data. Then, we wanted to limit the model applicability to the European oceanic areas which are marked by a mutual pedoclimatic situation and a territorial dividing into agricultural parcels. Besides, our idea was to consider the soil erosion hazard within these parcels which are area sources: assuming that in this geographic context the erosion is more controlled by agricultural units rather than the environment where they dwell. We eventually had to take into consideration the weight of agricultural practices through their temporality when we assessed this hazard. 250 After we proved SCALES was operational in Calvados, we contemplated editing the model in order to achieve an assessment of the erosion hazard within intra-annual time scales. SCALES progressive nature allows us to consider this model as spatially and temporally dynamic. However, the required investment for produce the data in order to decline the model at the monthly and seasonal scales does not allow us to establish a mapping of the soil erosion hazard on a regional level. Consequently, this fine temporal approach must be held for sectors with strong environmental stake. If SCALES can be used in a predictive approach, its structuring and its modularity also give opportunities within a prospective framework. It is what we did, in Basse-Normandie, concerning the topic of the impact of the climate change on the evolution of the cultivated soils susceptibility to erosion by water. In average year at horizon 2100, the results of this new application show that the levels of soil erosion hazard would be comparable with those currently obtained within the one year framework rainy of which the probability of return is once every 4 years. One would thus witness a reinforcement of the soil erosion hazard in average year. We now wish to look further into the prospective application of SCALES starting from the studies which present, in comparable areas, the scenarios of agricultural practices evolution in a near future and a future distance. Our first results and the aim which we propose are altogether in the spirit of the recommendations of the GIEC (2007b) and the European Environment Agency which reminds us the necessity to develop tools to assess the impact of climate change on soils

Protein status elicits compensatory changes in food intake and food preferences123

Background: Protein is an indispensable component within the human diet. It is unclear, however, whether behavioral strategies exist to avoid shortages

Class dynamics of development: a methodological note

This article argues that class relations are constitutive of developmental processes and central to understanding inequality within and between countries. In doing so it illustrates and explains the diversity of the actually existing forms of class relations, and the ways in which they interplay with other social relations such as gender and ethnicity. This is part of a wider project to re- vitalise class analysis in the study of development problems and experiences

Jeanne d’Arc (1412-1431) : Le soufre et le myosotis

Bensaïd Daniel. Jeanne d’Arc (1412-1431) : Le soufre et le myosotis. In: Cahiers du féminisme, n°46, 1988. Dossier : La galère : Chômage, précarité, pauvreté (automne 1988) pp. 38-42