April 26, 2018

The city and the countryside sharing the same space. Jonathan V. Larocca / Flickr , CC BY

Author Lionel Garreau

Lecturer HDR in Strategy & Organization, University Paris Dauphine - PSL

Declaration of interests

Lionel Garreau does not work, does not advise, does not own shares, does not receive funding from an organization that could benefit from this article, and has declared no other affiliation than his academic position.

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Agriculture is undergoing profound changes . Various forms are developing: smart agriculture , permaculture , agroecology, etc. There is today an ideological competition between these forms of agriculture, as evidenced by many works that propose ways of improving agriculture as it is currently practiced, without questioning the foundations of these models. .

The book by Benoît Biteau, resistant farmer, advocates the validity of the model of organic agroforestry. The book shows the benefits of this type of agriculture, both for economic reasons for farmers, and ecological for society. For its part, the work of Xavier Beulin (former president of the FNSEA) persists in a conventional but improved model (what could be called a smart agriculture ) in his book Our agriculture is in danger, what to do . Or the book Organic farming, hope or chimera presenting a debate between two opponents, pro and antibio, who each camp on their positions.

Practices in "simple loop"

Despite their interest in improving agricultural practices, these forms of agriculture actually offer only "simple loop" learning , that is, an adjustment of practices that improve the way agriculture is implementation, without, however, calling into question the frames of reference in which it is developing.

Therefore, the competition between these various forms is always based on the same arguments: for or against the use of phytosanitary products (the famous pesticides) and its practical consequences, the yields per hectare, respect for the environment, etc. The founding principles are never questioned by their supporters, making the dialogue unproductive.

Despite their differences, these currents of thought are based on three shared pillars: land would necessarily be needed to produce agricultural commodities; agriculture is practiced "horizontally" in fields; finally, agriculture requires dedicated plots, separated from plots of housing.

The new model of urban agriculture

An agricultural model, however, seems to implement what is called "double-loop" learning; that is, a correction of past mistakes by re-examining reasoning processes, problem-posing ways, underlying values, and goals.

This model is that of urban agriculture. This one is extracted from the foundations evoked above: necessary use of the land, horizontal agriculture and separation of agricultural parcels and dwelling. And, beyond challenging these frames of reference, it incorporates in its reflection other parameters shared by the scientific community: CO 2 consumption related to the transportation of agricultural products; the ever-increasing rate of urbanization; soil depletion or the need to consume less water.

By combining the questioning of certain factors and adding others, based on empirical observations, a new model has emerged with urban agriculture, which proposes a different future. It helps rethink how agriculture can develop today.

This mode of agriculture is also based on various formats: home farming, decentralized agriculture in modules intended for production (premises inside the building, containers, gardens on the ground or on roofs, etc.), vertical farms urban.

What development?

This new model breaks the codes of agriculture ... to the point that a company like Agricool- which produces strawberries in urban containers using no chemical pesticides - can not claim the organic label because it does not use no land!

We see here that the frameworks defined by the public authorities become obsolete. The latter will have to adapt to the new practices that are inventing each day in this sector: because the consumer would not understand that a product of the same quality as another, organic, can not eventually benefit from the same label.

Urban agriculture has, of course, not only advantages: a cost of production currently above the market average, a strong energy requirement, an impossibility to exploit very large plots (although the yield annual strawberries in 30m 2  containers at Agricool is the equivalent of 4 000m 2  in the field), the difficulty of ensuring livestock breeding, etc.

But it contributes to profound changes in the classic frames of reference of modern agriculture. While not forgetting to rely on new resources, using, for example, digital data from sensors to better manage water consumption.

The development of urban agriculture will not only go through a niche population and the development of startups such as Agricool , AeroFarms , Topager (realization of vegetable gardens on the roofs) or Roof Green (which will open soon). a vertical farm in Paris).

It will also be of interest to large companies in the real estate construction, energy or data management sector for this type of opportunity. This is also the interest of this new model: developing devices that make it possible to bring together actors who until now met little, while reconnecting the urban population with the problem of food production.

This article is based on the study conducted by the students of the Master's degree "Corporate Policy and Business Strategies" at Paris-Dauphine University as part of the Economic Intelligence Trophy, which took place on the 9th April 2018.

• Agriculture town planning food cities farmers urban agriculture organic farming alternative consumption greening farming lands