1Strengthening and securing economic activity in rural areas figure among the objectives of French policy on the quality and origin of agricultural products. These objectives make particular sense in “harsh” regions where farm competitiveness with regard to standard products is limited by difficult environmental conditions (Bazin, 1986). The principle is to obtain added value on the sale of products by highlighting the superior quality conferred on products by agricultural practices in harmony with challenging environments (Hirczak and Mollard, 2004; Bordessoule, 2006). In the mid-size mountains of the Mediterranean hinterlands, which are today highly specialized in livestock activities, and where dry summers and rigorous winters limit fodder production, numerous quality schemes involving animal products have been developed. The term, “quality scheme” refers to the production and marketing of a high quality product in conformance with detailed specifications voluntarily developed by a collective of farmers and processors. Obtaining an official label identifying quality and origin (red label, protected geographical indication, protected designation of origin, etc.) implies that the specifications are developed with the public sector, distinguishing them from private standards (Smith, 2010). The conformity of the product and award procedures are verified and validated by an independent certifying agency mandated by the State (Sylvander, 1996).

2Quality schemes involving animal products of the Mediterranean hinterlands more or less explicitly rely on pastoralism. This is considered here, as in other studies, as a multi-disciplinary subject with interlocking material and social dimensions (Eychenne, 2008). First of all, pastoralism corresponds to a set of extensive livestock farming practices (Milleville, 1987; Landais and Balent, 1993) which are reflected in mainly feeding animals by having them graze natural forage resources known as rangeland (Meuret et al., 1995; Jouven et al., 2010). On a broader scale, pastoralism also designates the relationships knit between farms, various institutions (sector operators, local governments, etc.) and ecosystems. Lastly, the term refers to “values and characteristics, real or assumed”, which are associated with the pastoral character and held by non-pastoral actors for which the term “pastorality” recently was proposed (Turquin et al., in preparation).

Grazing livestock and quality schemes in five medium-size mountain regions of France

Methodology

4The analysis presented in this article draws from several field studies which have been conducted since 2008 with Master-level students (Aubron et al., submitted; Nozières et al., 2010; Aubron et al., 2011a; Aubron et al., 2012) on the diversity of pastoral situations in the Mediterranean hinterland. In each of the five areas studied – Alpine foothills, Cévennes, Aubrac, Central Aveyron and Causses du Quercy (see Map 1 and Table 1) – research was based on an agrarian diagnosis (Cochet and Devienne, 2006; Cochet, 2012). The understanding of the biophysical environment generated by reading the landscape, coupled with the reconstitution of agrarian history through interviews with former farmers (between ten to fifteen per study area) threw light on the main changes in agriculture over the past few decades and provided a first picture of the current diversity of livestock farms in these areas. The technical and economic functioning of farms then was characterized in detail through interviews of a purposive sample of active farmers (about twenty per study area), looking at livestock farming practices, work organization, and developments underway. This work was complemented by value chain analyses based on interviews with different operators (between two and six per study area) and the study of the specifications of the quality schemes.

5In the five study areas, there are eight official labels identifying quality and origin, held by collectives of 80 to 2400 farmers, and covering small and large ruminant dairy and meat products (see Table 2).

Agrarian dynamics and emergence of quality schemes

7Under the national and even international conditions of competition characterizing animal product markets over the past few decades, these changes nonetheless have not been enough to ensure the viability of farms in these regions. With the exception of the Roquefort label, which is older, many of the quality schemes studied here were developed to respond to this crisis. Their aim is to obtain added value compared to standard products through the production of products with a specific quality. The definition and revision of the specifications of these schemes, begun in the 1990s, also correspond to the emergence of a quality economy based on the differentiation of products and quality levels (Allaire, 2002). Intangible qualities, meaning cultural and societal values associated with products (Eymard-Duverney, 2006; Gumuchian and Pecqueur, 2007; Landel and Senil, 2009), play an important role in this process. For example, communication materials of the quality schemes studied nearly all feature photographs of grazing animals or of people leading animals to rangelands. The reference to pasture areas and territories conferred by the protected designations of origin, and the linking of red quality labels with a protected geographical indication, also is a vector of intangible qualities. Consumers are receptive to this promotion of values in a context where some are developing a growing ‘awareness of pastoralism’ (Turquin et al., in preparation) and this contributes in turn to the construction of this pastorality.

Livestock farming practices recognized, as well as restricted, by quality schemes

The registration of extensive livestock farming practices in the specifications

9(i) the stocking rate, generally expressed in the form of the maximum number of animals authorized per hectare of forage area or per hectare of area used for animal feed.

10(ii) the source of all or part of animal feed, which is expressed in the form of the quantity -- more or less precise and more or less large – of the animal ration that should be produced on the farm or in the geographic area defined by the Protected Designation of Origin (AOP, the French acronym) and Protected Geographical Indication (IGP, the French acronym). This requirement can be complemented by the prohibition of indoor, “off-soil” livestock farming.

11(iii) the nature of feed given, through the definition of a minimum suckling period, the limit imposed on the quantity of concentrates given, the definition of a positive list of authorized feed or, in contrast, the prohibition of certain feed used in intensive farming (silage, GMO etc.), as some affect product quality (silage and cheese quality in Laguiole, for example).

12(iv) the grazing requirement, which is the subject of labels such as, “pasture-fed ewe”, “as soon as conditions permit”, “zero-grazing prohibited” or stipulating a certain number of days of grazing, sometimes associated with a season in which this should take place. The label also can specify the nature of the area grazed, as is the case of the label, Bœuf Fermier d’Aubrac (Aubrac Farm Beef), which requires the transhumance of animals to altitudes above 800 m.

13The registration of local bovine and ovine breeds in the specifications of eight of the quality schemes studied, sometimes crossbred to improve their performance (see Table 2), is coherent with the pastoral character of the livestock farms (Lambert-Derkimba, 2007). These breeds adapted to environmental conditions effectively are able to make better use of local feed resources (Vallerand, 1983).

14Lastly, certain specifications codify product transformation and conservation processes, thereby guaranteeing the expression of specific qualities conferred by the pastoral character of livestock farming practices. The four dairy quality schemes studied involve cheese made with raw milk and thus exclude the pasteurization and standardization of milk. Likewise, with the exception of Rocamadour, for which freezing is authorized for a 50% curd volume, these quality schemes prohibit freezing.

Pastoral practices restricted by choices regarding the quality and seasonality of production

16Staggered production responds to the needs of downstream operators, particularly supermarket chains which are the main outlets of the quality schemes studied and which seek regular supplies over the year. This is easier to achieve for cheeses with long maturing periods (Laguiole and Roquefort as opposed to Rocamadour or Pélardon) and for meat from long-cycle animals slaughtered as adults (Aubrac Farm Beef and Fleur d’Aubrac Heifer as opposed to Sisteron Lamb and Quercy Farm Lamb). In the two quality schemes involving lamb, this demand led to setting up incentives to stagger production: prices are higher in periods when it is difficult to produce lambs, generally due to a limited availability of forage in pastures. Lambing and suckling ewes in these periods consequently are fed mainly distributed feed, sometimes indoors. Most farms producing Quercy Farm Lamb thus practice three lambing seasons per year, of which one is in winter and takes place indoors. The price scale of Sisteron Lamb encourages farmers to produce lambs off-season, in other words, at the beginning of autumn. Lambing must take place in summer to produce these lambs, which means that transhumance practices must be abandoned for at least part of the flock. For cheeses with short maturing periods, freezing curds allows production to be deferred from one period to another, and therefore reduces the seasonality of the marketing of the end product. This practice facilitates the maintenance of coherence between dairy production and fodder availability, but affects the organoleptic quality of the product and can change its image. In the Pélardon quality scheme, which prohibits freezing for these very reasons, the collective management of milk supply from the Moissac cooperative was explored, yet with a limited scope: staggered cheese production is ensured by milk deliveries from a combination of farms producing early, at the height of, and late in the season thanks to access to different resources and feed management practices (Napoleone and Boutonnet, 2004).

Farm dynamics in the territories: quality schemes supporting development with a nonetheless limited pastoral character

Quality schemes as a contribution to territorial development

18The maintenance of farm density and farm jobs is an essential component of the development of these rural areas. The data that could be gathered suggest that in the territories studied, the rate of reduction in farm numbers is comparable or indeed below French averages, even if in none of the cases studied has the presence of quality labels managed to stem the erosion in farm numbers (see Table 3).

20As shown in the literature, the collective character of quality schemes also is what contributes to territorial development. Collective actions render possible, without necessarily guaranteeing, debates and negotiations over technical and organization choices and the diffusion of innovation for the actors involved (Torre and Chia, 2000; Dervillé, 2012) Depending on the case (see Table 2), collective action concerns a varying number of farmers, involves to a greater or lesser degree certain downstream operators (Confédération générale de Roquefort with farmers and industry, Génisse Fleur d’Aubrac with farmers, slaughterhouses and butchers) and focuses on a varying range of technical and commercial operations (transport, transformation, distribution of products or simply communication).

21Lastly, quality schemes and certain activities associated with them mutually benefit from their shared presence in the territory. In the study areas, this is in particular the case of tourism, with the systematic promotion of quality schemes in tourism offices, tourist oriented events involving the products concerned and the organization of visits to farms and cheese making sites for tourists. Local restaurants and shops, some highly reputed, often work with the products proposed by quality schemes. In return, quality schemes frequently mention in their communications the touristic and gastronomic features of the territory. In Aubrac, quality schemes involving meat and dairy products, which historically have been produced by the same cattle livestock system (Valogne et al., 1974), echo each other and refer to another product, the Laguiole knife, which rounds out this “basket of goods” (Pecqueur, 2001). These synergies between activities on a territory involve the construction of a heritage, which in the cases studied often has a distinct pastoral character and thus contributes to the definition of pastorality. The reinforcement of these synergies is interpreted by several authors as being an important vector of development (Boucher and Requier Desjardins, 2002; Hirczak et al., 2008; Frayssignes, 2009; Muchnik and de Sainte-Marie, 2010).

Increases in size and equipment of farms undermining pastoralism

24However, in landscapes that are more rugged, closed or fragmented than the mountain pasture and garrigues of the Var, the grazing of rangeland by large herds is difficult for labour-related reasons (Noël, 2013). In such areas, large farms, even more than small ones, abandon distant and small rangelands, which then fall idle. The Alpine foothills, Cevennes and the Causses plateaus of Lot are thus all three characterized by landscape closure dynamics, and this even when the number of animals at the level of the territory generally has remained stable over the last few decades (Agreste, 2010).

25Lastly, the dynamics of increasing in size and equipment of farms in quality schemes contribute to the exclusion of smaller farms that cannot keep up with this capitalization or supply products of the required quality. Operating on the margins of quality schemes, such small farms sometimes implement pastoral practices because there is an elderly person present on the farm who can watch over the animals in rangelands. Some farms setting up outside the farming family structure have no other option due to a lack of access to non-pastoral resources. Due to the high seasonality of the production linked to the priority use of pastoral resources and the conformation of animals resulting from slower growth, the products produced often are poorly valorized through conventional circuits. This exclusion mechanism is certainly inherent in quality schemes but it could be modulated by coordination between actors around a product and tradeoffs that they make together between valorization and protection (Filippi and Triboulet, 2006). In production areas close to large urban centres (Alpine foothills, Cevennes), these excluded farms are exploring the possibility of direct sales to add value to their products by promoting their pastoral character. The assurance of “pastorality” is then pinned on interpersonal relationships of confidence between farmers and consumers. This solution is, however, risky and less used in areas far from large cities (Aubrac, Aveyron).

Conclusion

26The quality schemes studied clearly contribute to the development of the territories in which they are present, territories that all historically had, and continue today to have, distinctly pastoral characters. The schemes furthermore contribute to awakening and stimulating an “appreciation of pastoralism” in consumers who sometimes live outside these territories but are linked to them through this awareness. The often limited place given to grazing, in particular on rangeland, in the feeding of animals, and the increasing size and equipment levels of farms engaged in quality schemes, nonetheless is compromising the truly pastoral character of these farms. This refers back to the governance of these quality schemes, to innovations that the schemes have managed to develop and the reputation of the products produced, which in turns conditions their market power and capacity to make truly pastoral choices which pay less heed to downstream demands for homogeneity and regularity. However, other sector operators and “pastoralism sympathizers”, namely consumers, also have a role to play as they contribute to the construction of these downstream demands by showing their attachment to the pastoral values conveyed by a product. The maintenance of a strong articulation between pastoralism and pastorality, or, in other words, between actual pastoral practices and values associated with pastoralism, appears essential if these territories are to conserve more than a simply pastoral image. Ensuring that all actors have access to knowledge about pastoralism as it actually is practiced today is a good means of reinforcing this articulation. Communication tools employed by quality schemes and regional tourism services often only meet these objectives in an imperfect manner, and this is where other actors could play a role. The development of the direct sale of meat and dairy products in the majority of the study areas promises new relationships between farmers and consumers which potentially will be able to strengthen this articulation.