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Publications > Cahiers (English)> N° 73, 4th term 2004

 

DOSSIER : Réflexions à propos du Handbook of Agricultural Economics

Nouveaux enjeux autour de l’abattage rituel musulman : une perspective européenne
[New challenges for Islamic ritual slaughtering : a European perspective]

Florence BERGEAUD-BLACKLER * (* Laboratoire d’Anthropologie, UMR 6578, CNRS – Université de la Méditerranée, faculté de médecine, 27, Bd Jean Moulin, Marseille cedex 05 ; Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition, Faculty of Social Sciences and Law, University of Manchester (UK) - e-mail : florence.bergeaud-blackler@manchester.ac.uk)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 73, 2004, pp 5-33

Summary - The production and consumption of halal products, i.e. those deriving from ritual slaughtering, has grown steadily over the last 15 years. Today the global halal market is estimated at US$ 150 billion per year. This paper describes the main steps in the integration of “Muslim ritual slaughtering” into the national legislative systems of Western European countries, and it analyses the economic and political issues involved in this integration. Once being the subject of dispute between animal welfare organisations and religious groups, sometimes based on anti-semitism and racism, the arguments surrounding slaughtering ritual have recently, particularly in the aftermath of the BSE crisis, evolved to become an issue of consumer rights. In this paper, two cases will illustrate this evolution : Switzerland, as a European country, and the UK as a member state of the European Union. Muslim ritual slaughtering has never been precisely defined and has benefited from a status of exception in most legislative systems by overriding animal welfare regulation. One of the consequences of this exceptional status has been the growth of an un-regulated market that does not give the consumer (Muslim as well as non Muslim) any assurance regarding the process of production of halal products. Religious institutions seem unable to handle an issue of this nature, that is more usually dealt with by better equipped economic actors and consumer organisations. Facing this situation, the European Union and member states now have two possible options. Either they abolish the special status of ritual slaughtering and they rescind their commitments to take into account specific religious requirements, or they apply a “farm to fork” approach to food for religious purposes that is similar, in terms of traceability and labelling, to those that apply to foods posing ethical issues.

Keywords : ritual slaughtering, halal meat, Islamic minorities, animal welfare, sociology of food.

Les conditions d’implantation des plans de prévention des risques naturels : une approche par la théorie des options réelles
[How to implement prevention policies against natural hazards : a real options theory approach]

Gérard MONDELLO* (* GREDEG – CNRS, 250 rue Albert Einstein, 06560 Valbonne - e-mail : mondello@idefi.cnrs.fr)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 73, 2004, pp 35-70

Summary - The Natural Risk Prevention Plans (plans de prévention des risques naturels, PPRN) were founded in France by the law of February 2, 1995. The characteristic of these plans is to create significant natural areas free of any construction with the aim to protect human lives and the goods of any natural accident occurrence. This concerns the floods, the landslides, the avalanches and the forest fires. In theory, the area delimitation chosen by the services of the prefecture is carried out in dialogue with the municipalities. In fact, the degree of freedom of the concerned municipalities is quite weak. Hence, in most of the cases, the PPRNs are imposed. For a few years, the elected officials have wished to enter into a true negotiation with the prefectures in order to limit the economic impact of these plans. Indeed, in certain communes, the natural risks are varied and a commune can “suffer” under several PPRNs. As a consequence, it can constitute a brake with its development projects. This article aims at defining the methods which would allow the setting up of negotiation procedures between the regulator and the communes relative to the set-aside of areas concerned by a PPRN. We consider the forest fire risk. It is shown that in some cases, it is possible to make a trade-off between, at one side, the defence of the considered area with at the same time its economic exploitation and, at the other side, the complete set-aside of this one. In this direction, a real option model is developed. The patrimonial value of the area is determined considering its potential economic activity. From this value, the value of the means of prevention is determined as an option value. After studying some simulations that show the importance of the knowledge of the major t probabilities, we test the model from an empirical study carried out in the Maritimes-Alps over the period 1973-2002.

Keywords : prevention policies, natural hazard, forestfire, real options.

Pour une compréhension des espaces ruraux : représentations du paysage de territoires français et québécois
[Understanding rural areas : an approach of territories through landscape in France and Québec]

Nicolas GAMACHE*, Gérald DOMON**, Yves JEAN*** (* Laboratoire IcoTem, Faculté de Géographie, Université de Poitiers, Faculté de l’Aménagement, Université de Montréal, Land’Frère, 79340 Coutières - e-mail : nicolasgamache79aol.com - ** Ecole d’architecture du Paysage et chaire en Paysage et Environnement, Faculté de l’Aménagement, Université de Montréal, CP 6128, Succursale centre-ville, Montréal QC, H3C 3J7, Canada - e-mail : gerald.domon@montreal.ca - *** Faculté de Géographie, Université de Poitiers, 99 avenue du Recteur Pineau, 86000 Poitiers - e-mail : yves.jean@univ-poitiers.fr)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 73, 2004, pp 71-102

Summary - Landscape reveals present day conception of space. And this will continue as landscape is strongly influenced by government policy in regard to territory. In certain rural areas, the landscape can counter the decline as a result of intensive agriculture and the changes in landscape over the past fifty years. While focusing on the relationship between the social, spacial and cultural aspects of landscape, we will use two examples, the Haut Saint-Laurent in Québec and Gâtine poitevine in France. We see how landscape has being mutated as a result of the industrialisation of agriculture and its subsequent consequences. It deals with the characteristics of these basic processes, i.e. the sudden change that followed the industrialization of agriculture and the consequences it implied.
The effects on the landscape are varied and touch the heritage elements and that of the landscape imagined : that is the landscape resulting from social perceptions and representations – for example the hedges and the scrap-metal which are constantly losing ground in Gâtine. Or the agricultural demise on the plateau of the Haut Saint-Laurent easily witnessed through greater uncultivated and abandoned land left to waste to the benefit of intensive agriculture on the more fertile land of the plain. The question then arises which is the basis of our reflection : what link can one establish between changes in landscape and the territorial representations ? These problems were approached through a in-depth survey carried out on the two territories. The preliminary results presented in the following article invite us, through comparison of the two experiments, to revisit the concepts of landscape, cultural identity, territoriality and should provide us with the raw material to elaborate a theoretical structure of the relationship between society and place. We will explore the strains exerted on the landscape, and those between social groups, the direction of these reports/ratios, all with the goal of giving a greater understanding of the organizational relationship social/actions, collectivities/impacts on the social ground and the objective sphere of the landscape.

Keywords : landscape, territories, rural spaces, demise, identity, heritage.

Regional income effects of producer support under the CAP

Sven ANDERS*, Johannes HARSCHE**, Roland HERRMANN*, Klaus SALHOFER*** (* Institute of Agricultural Policy and Market Research, University of Giessen, Senckenbergstr. 3, D-35390 Giessen, Germany - e-mail : Sven.Anders@agrar.uni-giessen.de - Roland.Herrmann@agrar.uni-giessen.de - ** Forschungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft Hessen, Abraham-Lincoln-Str. 38-42, D-65189 Wiesbaden, Germany - e-mail : Johannes.Harsche@hessen-agentur.de - *** Department of Economics, Technical University of Munich, Alte Akademie 14, D-85350 Freising, Germany - e-mail : Salhofer@wzw.tum.de)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 73, 2004, pp 103-121

Summary - The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU) is characterized by a wide array of individual policy measures, which differ by the category of instruments, across commodities and over time. Consequently, the net impact of the policy mix on price incentives for producers and consumers had been intransparent for years. This study utilizes a regionalized concept of producer support estimates (PSEs) to elaborate the primary effects of the CAP on producers at a disaggregate level of NUTS III regions. 26 regions in the federal state of Hesse, Germany, in the years 1986-1999 are utilized as a case study. One important result is that a uniform CAP does affect the regions very differently. Recent reforms of the CAP have not reduced significantly the average level of agricultural support in the region studied. Statistically significant downward trends in absolute producer support due to price support were associated with significant upward trends due to direct payments. Interestingly, absolute and relative PSE measures due to the CAP and price support are fully uncorrelated with each other. If transfers under the CAP are targeted in terms of absolute support, e.g., this may induce an arbitrary interregional distribution of PSEs in relation to farm revenues.

Keywords : common agriculture policy, European Union, producer support estimates (PSE), regional income effects, Hesse.

DOSSIER : Réflexions à propos du Handbook of Agricultural Economics

Exploring the frontiers of agricultural economics : a review of volumes 2A and 2B of the Handbook of Agricultural Economics

David COLMAN* (* Centre for Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics, University of Manchester, United Kingdom)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 73, 2004, pp 126-141

Summary - Along with volume 1 of the Handbook of Agricultural Economics, the second volume presents the work of some of the most distinguished members of the agricultural economics profession, and it does a service in demonstrating the width and depth of contemporary analysis. One of the key-features of volume 2 of the Handbook is the emphasis laid on game theoretic concepts in contemporary agricultural economics, and on the claims that these provide new insights into the whole spectrum of policy-making ranging from traditional commodity policies, environmental policies, pro-poor food and agricultural development programmes, and even to macro-economic policy. This collection of impressive papers makes the statement that leading agricultural economists can hold their own with mainstream economic theorists. But, in so-doing, the Handbook as a whole seemingly downplays the peculiar strength of agricultural economics, which lies in fusing together institutional and empirical insights with the micro-theory to provide operational solutions to outstanding policy issues. There is to be at least one further volume, concentrating on Development Economics, and a full evaluation of the Handbook’s presentation of the state of our discipline must wait until the full set is assembled.

Keywords : agricultural economics, agriculture, resource economics, macroeconomics, agricultural and food policy.

Les apports de l’économie rurale des 20 dernières années à travers le Tome 2 du Handbookof Agricultural Economics

Louis-Pascal MAHÉ* (* Département de gestion et d’économie rurale, Agro Campus, Rennes)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 73, 2004, pp 142-176

Summary - Volume 2 of the Handbook of Agricultural Economics covers three large fields : environment, macroeconomics, and agricultural and food policy. Some chapters aim at exposing the matter and others are excessively technical regarding the story told, some are just a recollection, but others find a very good balance. The amount of works of the profession is impressive, and the sense of progress is real, even if limits are identified. Information and institutions have gained attention compared to quantitative methods which are no longer covered as such : may be a sign of professional maturity. There is no unique message in the Handbook, there are even contradictions and lively debates : this is a sign of good health. Even if faith in markets prevails, almost as a doctrine in some chapters, focus is also made on some limits of private property and free markets. The approach is pragmatic and stresses empirical relevance. The reading is a must for advanced students and for all academics who whish to avoid staying narrow on their own topic.

Key-words : agricultural economics, agriculture, resource economics, macroeconomics, agricultural and food policy.

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