Book of Abstract (incl. addendum) - IFSA symposium 2012

Workshop 6.3 Organics: their dynamics
Convenors:
Marc Tchamitchian, Stéphane Bellon, Ika Darnhofer, Cristina Micheloni, M. Ramos and Pierre
Stassart
Organic farming is conversely challenged by both an increasing commodification and its ability to
produce public goods. This workshop addresses this challenge along the following three topics: (i)
design principles and experiences of innovative farming systems, (ii) reproducibility and sustainability
of organic farming systems (adaptability, resilience, reversibilities), (iii) relevant levels of organization
to merge the previous issues (tradeoffs among productive and environmental dimensions, upscaling
and co-existence of models…). An added value is to contribute todefine a research agenda.
Towards multiple-play in organic farming: co-producing food and public
goods
Marc Tchamitchian, Stéphane Bellon, Ika Darnhofer, Cristina Micheloni, Maria Ramos and Pierre
Stassart
INRA, France
Marc.Tchamitchian@avignon.inra.fr
Organic systems are challenged by an increasing demand to produce both food and public goods.
Under this manifold pressure, organic systems take different routes from the traditional ecologically
based organic systems to conventionalisation. A third a more complex route may exist which would
address these different socially assigned goals. However, the structure and the processes of such
systems remain to be defined, as well as their properties, whether productive, economic, ecological,
ecosystemic or social. From this characterization it should be possible to assess whether producing
food and fullfilling environmental goals are contradictory goals or may be combined for the better, and
will give clues on how to design such intensified organic systems, on which biological processes they
must be based.These results may also contribute to clarify what ecological intensification is and how to
put it to work in practice.
This presentation focusses on the questions raised by these trends and the search for an alternative
route. These questions deals with the design of new organic farming systems, their sustainability and
reproducibility. They also deal with the scale at which design can be foresee, with the hypothesis that
more degrees of freedom for the design of new organic farming systems may be found if the
relationship and landscape organizationof these systems are also considered. As such, this presentation
aims to be an introduction to this workshop.
Conversion to organic farming and consequences on work organisation and
work perception
Baptiste Nettier, A. Dufour and S. Chabrat
Irstea Grenoble, France
Baptiste.Nettier@irstea.fr
With 3% of agricultural area conducted in organic farming, France will not reach its objective of 6% of
agricultural area converted to organic farming in 2012. Work surplus (real or supposed) seems to act as
a brake to conversion, while French farmers often seek to reduce their work constraints. The aim of
our study is to identify changes that happened during transition to organic farming on the farm, and to
understand their consequences on work organisation and farmer's work perception. 18 surveys were
conducted in Rhône-Alpes region on dairy farms and cereal farms converted to organic farming for
about ten years. Changes are due to organic farming specifications and to technical and economic
adjustments. They are sometimes also linked to the management of isolation (from the local farmers'
community, from the former advisory and marketing networks). Changes are various, depending on
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