Production de viande ovine en agriculture biologique comparée à l’élevage conventionnel : résultats technicoéconomiques d’exploitations de plaine et de montagne du nord du Massif central

Durant les cinq dernières années, l’Agriculture Biologique (AB) a connu, en France, un développement inégalé : entre 1997 et 2002, la superficie conduite en AB a été multipliée par trois et les effectifs de brebis par cinq. Cette croissance s’accompagne d’un important besoin de références, en particulier technico-économiques. L’observation sur trois années de 24 exploitations ovines allaitantes en AB, comparées à 39 exploitations ovines allaitantes conventionnelles, met en évidence une certaine spécificité des élevages AB, tout en confirmant les principaux facteurs qui déterminent la marge par brebis et le revenu. Etant donné le prix des aliments concentrés en AB, 1,8 fois supérieur à celui des conventionnels, la quantité consommée est déterminante sur la marge par brebis. Elle peut être réduite en valorisant au mieux la surface fourragère. La plus-value sur la vente des agneaux en AB se réduit depuis trois ans, pour n’être plus en 2002 que de 16 % en zone de montagne et 0 % en zone de plaine. Le revenu hors aides CTE des éleveurs AB est de 39 % inférieur en montagne et de 57 % en plaine à celui des élevages conventionnels. Marge par brebis, productivité du travail et charges de structure sont déterminants sur le revenu. Dans le contexte actuel de cours favorables à l’agneau conventionnel, ne permettant que peu de plus-value sur l’agneau bio, le développement ou même simplement le maintien des élevages AB passe par des aides sur le long terme qui intégreraient les aspects environnementaux et, peut-être, la valeur santé des produits qui reste à démontrer

Technical and economic performances in organic sheep meat production: observations of breeding networks and experimental farms

A network of 42 sheep farms (including 13 in organic farming (OF)) shows that the gross margin per ewe is 24% lower in OF in the mountains because of high food costs and comparable in the lowlands because of the high level of food self-sufficiency based on the cultivation of fodder and grain; incomes are identical when structural costs are comparable. An analysis of four demonstration farms shows that, given the different conditions, specific livestock management is required depending on the presence of tillable land or not. If their proportion is limited, lambings are equally distributed between spring and autumn in order to maximise fodder self-sufficiency. When crops are possible, lambings are focused on autumn (with good sale prices), which requires the increased use of concentrates, some of which are produced on the farm. A five-year study revealed that these strategies lead to a convergence of between 80 and 90% food self-sufficiency. In suckling livestock in organic as well as conventional farming systems, high levels of forage and food self-sufficiency are essential to ensure economic viability within the context of rising grain prices

TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC CONSTRAINTS IN ORGANIC SUCKLER SHEEP FARMING IN FRANCE. ANALYSIS IN A GROUP OF FARMS

The structures and the technical and economic results of 12 farms practising organic farming (Org) (eight upland and four lowland) were compared with those of 25 conventional farms (Conv) (14 and 11), over three years (2002-2004). The Org farms had smaller structures, fewer workers, and lower numerical productivity, especially in uplands (-16 % on average over three years) owing to lower flock intensification and sometimes because of sanitary problems. The key questions were above all economic with (i) the high cost of concentrates, the consumption of which remained high (extra cost per kg from 40 % to 60 % in 2004), and (ii) steadily decreasing average premium on meat price; only 9 % in uplands and 2 % in lowlands in 2004. Hence the gross margin per ewe was 20 % to 23 % lower on average over three years, than that on Conv farms. The impact on earnings was marked. Income is also strongly dependent on public subsidies, which are set to diminis

Performances techniques et économiques de 2 troupeaux ovins expérimentaux conduits en Agriculture Biologique (AB).

Deux troupeaux ovins allaitants en AB ont été comparés en ferme expérimentale, menés selon 2 conduites de la reproduction : 3 agnelages en 2 ans (système accéléré) ou une mise bas par an (système herbager). Leurs performances techniques et économiques ont été analysées et comparées à celles d’élevages privés. En système accéléré, la productivité numérique est légèrement supérieure (6 % : 161 vs 152 en moyenne sur 3 ans) mais, même lorsque l’écart est élevé (en 2002 : 193 vs 152), la marge par brebis est peu supérieure (90€ vs 86) du fait de coûts de production élevés. En effet, les concentrés utilisés atteignent 178 kg/brebis (+58 %) avec un prix 60 % plus élevé qu’en conventionnel. Par ailleurs, les résultats de ce système sont irréguliers. Le système herbager, moins intensif pour l’animal, est l’illustration d’un compromis entre niveau des performances zootechniques élevé et maîtrise des charges d’alimentation avec maximisation de l’utilisation des ressources fourragères

Does organic livestock husbandry uses less energy and produces less greenhouse gas than conventional husbandry? Analysis in lactating sheep farms

We have undertaken in this work an evaluation of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the Non-Renewable Energy (NRE) consumption on a sample of 1250 farms-years, operating in sheep meat production, in either organic (OA) or conventional (CA) agriculture, over the period 1987 to 2012, based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. There was no significant difference for NRE consumption (79.6 MJ in OA and 79.7 MJ in CA, per kg of carcass); indeed the gains in OA thanks to a lower use of chemical fertilizers and purchase of lesser concentrates feed were offset by the higher level of mechanization (here fuels and equipment). For GHG emissions, we found a significant difference of 5% beneficial to organic production systems (31.1 vs. 32.7 kg CO2 eq/kg carcass)

Animal health strategies in organic and conventional meat sheep production

Sixteen meat sheep farms (nine conventional and seven organic) in the centre of France were surveyed to evaluate their economic and production performances (previous interviews) and their strategies related to animal health with particular attention to internal parasites (present interview on health strategies). The organic farms were surveyed in mid-September 2006 and the conventional ones in October 2007. Each interview (1½ or 2 h) included a visit of the farm (with the collection of faeces for evaluation of internal parasites), followed by an open discussion on sheep production and health problems, and parasitic infections, in particular. The discussion was recorded and then transcribed into a word processor file and analysed. The farmers agreed on the fragile health of their animals (with special attention to internal parasites)and were confronted with the low value of each lamb or ewe, which does not allow for high health costs. Even under this limited economic situation, the farmers developed different health strategies. Conventional farmers rely on systematic treatments to prevent parasitic infection; they use low-cost effective synthetic drugs and accept lamb mortality rates ranging from five to eight percent. Their practices are homogeneous, which is possibly due to frequent exchanges with colleagues or veterinarians. The healthcare strategy of organic farmers may be divided into two distinct categories: autonomous (“self-made farmer”) and “creative”. The organic self-made farmers are experienced and aim at a sustainable flock (“cruiser flock”). The creative ones do not seem to easily handle the health strategy aspect and often spend more money on healthcare than their conventional or organic self-made colleagues. Health strategy is therefore not completely dependent on the type of production - conventional versus organic - but on the farmer’s conception of life and nature. The creative farmers believe that disease is a dysfunction that may be corrected with treatments (conventional or alternative ones), whereas the self-made farmers consider health as the result of a dynamic equilibrium between the many forces that interact within a flock. The latter is somewhat similar to the idea put forth in the book “The normal and the pathological” by Canguilhem

Not saying, not doing: Convergences, contingencies and causal mechanisms of state reform and decentralisation in Hollande’s France

Are States in contemporary Europe subject to new forms of convergence under the impact of economic crisis, enhanced European steering and international monitoring? Or is the evolution of governance (national and sub-national) driven fundamentally by diverging, mainly domestic pressures? Drawing on extensive new data, the article combines analysis of the State Modernisation and Decentralisation reform programmes of the Hollande–Ayrault administration, drawing comparisons where appropriate with the previous Sarkozy regime. The limits of President Hollande’s anti-Sarkozy method were demonstrated in the first 2 years; framing state reform and decentralisation in negative terms prevented the emergence of a coherent legitimising discourse. The empirical data is interpreted with reference to a comparative ‘States of Convergence’ framework, which is conceptualised as a heuristic device for analysing variation between places, countries and policy fields. The article concludes that the forces of hard convergence are gaining ground, as economic, epistemic and European pressures continually challenge the forces of institutional inertia

Engaging the user community for advancing societal applications of the surface water ocean topography mission

Scheduled for launch in 2021, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will be a truly unique mission that will provide high-temporal-frequency maps of surface water extents and elevation variations of global water bodies (lakes/reservoirs, rivers, estuaries, oceans, and sea ice) at higher spatial resolution than is available with current technologies (Biancamaria et al. 2016; Alsdorf et al. 2007). The primary instrument on SWOT is based on a Ka-band radar interferometer (KaRIN), which uses radar interferometery technology. The satellite will fly two radar antennas at either end of a 10-m (33 ft) mast, allowing it to measure the elevation of the surface along a 120-km (75 mi)-wide swath below. The availability of high-frequency and high-resolution maps of elevations and extents for surface water bodies and oceans will present unique opportunities to address numerous societally relevant challenges around the globe (Srinivasan et al. 2015). These opportunities may include such diverse and far-ranging applications as fisheries management, flood inundation mapping/risk mitigation/forecasting, wildlife conservation, global data assimilation for improving forecast of ocean tides and weather, reservoir management, climate change impacts and adaptation, and river discharge estimation, among others

A history of post-communist remembrance: from memory politics to the emergence of a field of anticommunism

This article invites the view that the Europeanization of an antitotalitarian “collective memory” of communism reveals the emergence of a field of anticommunism. This transnational field is inextricably tied to the proliferation of state-sponsored and anticommunist memory institutes across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), but cannot be treated as epiphenomenal to their propagation. The diffusion of bodies tasked with establishing the “true” history of communism reflects, first and foremost, a shift in the region’s approach to its past, one driven by the right’s frustration over an allegedly pervasive influence of former communist cliques. Memory institutes spread as the CEE right progressively perceives their emphasis on research and public education as a safer alternative to botched lustration processes. However, the field of anticommunism extends beyond diffusion by seeking to leverage the European Union institutional apparatus to generate previously unavailable forms of symbolic capital for anticommunist narratives. This results in an entirely different challenge, which requires reconciling of disparate ideological and national interests. In this article, I illustrate some of these nationally diverse, but internationally converging, trajectories of communist extrication from the vantage point of its main exponents: the anticommunist memory entrepreneurs, who are invariably found at the helm of memory institutes. Inhabiting the space around the political, historiographic, and Eurocratic fields, anticommunist entrepreneurs weave a complex web of alliances that ultimately help produce an autonomous field of anticommunism