Whereas there is a broad discussion about the renewal of agricultural production and the adaptation of public support, the co-editors of the book are intended to feed the discussion of what underlies this concept of public good by bringing to the knowledge of a wide audience the results of a research programme (BipPop) on the production of public goods in agriculture, topic that was central in the debates of the last reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Content of the book
The first part of this book aims to revisit the various definitions of public good in economics, sociology and law. Beyond an apparent consensus on the definition of the term, there is a social construct and a translation which varies over time and territories. The second part analyses, through diagnostic analysis of agrarian systems, the production process / destruction of social and environmental public goods in different agricultural contexts in Europe. The third part discusses, from a sociological angle and in different case studies in Europe, the life trajectories of farmers and their contributions to produce and manage public goods on their territories. The fourth section analyses the relative influence of the concept of public goods to renew the CAP and shows, in the case of France, the affiliation with multifunctionality. This section also discusses the differentiated use of the concept of public good by the protagonists of the CAP and its weight in the negotiation process of the reform of this policy.
This book provides guidelines for understanding the construction of a new European agreement on the CAP. Behind the speeches, it is important to identify the extent of the efforts to continue to ensure that CAP subsidies are directed to the most “virtuous” farms taking into account public goods and measures to renew in depth the CAP tools beyond a simple ‘greening’.
Public
This book is for anyone curious to examine the renewal of ways of supporting agricultural production systems. It will interest farmers, associations, rural stakeholders, policy makers and professional leaders who seek keys to re-read the CAP and its development.
About the coordinator
Marielle Berriet – Solliec is Professor of rural economics at AgroSup Dijon, UMR 1041 CESAER member (Center for Economics and Sociology applied to agriculture and rural areas, University of Bourgogne Franche –Comté. She is currently involved in the PEGASUS project with Euromontana.
To have more information about the book, please find more information here.
6 June 2016
