Building a territorial food policy in French rural areas

Résumé 0

This article questions the issues and specificities of the territorialization of food policies in rural areas through the example of two territories located in the hinterland of Montpellier (France) : the Pays Haut-Languedoc et Vignobles and the Pays Cœur d’Hérault. These case studies are involved in the national program of the Territorial Food Projects, which supports the development of local food policies. They show food public action trajectories that are characterized by a shift from targeted thematic policies, in particular around short food supply chains, to a systemic approach. This development is based on the mobilization of resources available at supra-territorial levels, as well as within inter-territorial networks built on proximity relations emerging around the Territorial Food Projects. However, the appropriation of these food policies by sub-territorial actors and residents appears to be a challenge still to be met. Mayors in particular have mixed reactions of rejection, opportunism or adherence. These difficulties can be partly explained by the weight of rural contexts, marked by unequal financial and human means, by distance and low density, which generate barriers in terms of logistics, mobility, and mobilization of actors, and by the institutional structure of these territories in the form of Pays.