Agro-ecology in action: The environmental oasis projects
-
DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ee.10(1).2019.05
-
Article InfoVolume 10 2019, Issue #1, pp. 66-78
- Cited by
- 955 Views
-
190 Downloads
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Agro-ecology is now considered as an alternative model to the industrial agricultural model. Faced with the limitations of conventional production models, agro-ecology is emerging today as a possible response to the challenges of the 21st century: food security, circularity, respect for the environment, and development of employment. More generally, the adoption of circular principles aims to decouple environmental pressure from agricultural productivism. Agro-ecology is a relevant research topic because it aims to ensure sustainable and resilient agricultural production, to empower local farmers, to protect the environment and to fight against climate change. This article focuses on the French Oasis projects, as part of the “Hummingbird movement” initiated by Pierre Rabhi, and which represent a successful agro-ecological experience, in economic, social and environmental terms. Different data were collected by compiling information available on the website of 76 Oasis projects across France: people living in the community; lodging possibilities; availability of a school; and direct relationship with local farmers. Then, a social factorial correspondence analysis and an environmental factorial correspondence analysis were realized to evaluate the impacts of environmental Oasis projects. The results show that profitable organizations seem to conduct more social and environmental activities in an agro-ecology context, and they put in place more actions than those who have no profitable aims.
- Keywords
-
JEL Classification (Paper profile tab)L33, Q18, Q57
-
References50
-
Tables6
-
Figures3
-
- Figure 1. Representation of the social factorial correspondence analysis
- Figure 2. Representation of the environmental factorial correspondence analysis
- Figure 3. Economic and ecological loops
-
- Table 1. Transgression of the nine “planetary boundaries”
- Table 2. Environmental actions undertaken by the Oasis projects (2018)
- Table 3. Social grades
- Table 4. Coordinates for the graph: social aspect
- Table 5. Environmental grades
- Table 6. Coordinates for the graph: environmental aspects
-
- Andersen, M. (2007). An introductory note on the environmental economics of the circular economy. Sustainable Science, 2(1), 133-140.
- Bakker, C., Wever, R., Teoh, C., & De Clercq, S. (2010). Designing cradle-to-cradle products: a reality check. International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 3(1), 2-8.
- Bjørn, A., & Hauschild, M. (2013). Absolute versus relative environmental sustainability: what can the cradle‐to‐cradle and eco‐efficiency concepts learn from each other? Journal of Industrial Ecology, 17(2), 321-332.
- Boulding, K. (1966/2015). The economics of the coming spaceship Earth. In Lippit, V. (Ed.), Radical political economy: explorations in alternative economic analysis (pp. 357-367). London: Routledge.
- Charter, M. (Ed.). (2018). Designing for the circular economy. London: Routledge.
- Chifurira, R., Chikobvu, D., & Dubihlela, D. (2016). Rainfall prediction for sustainable economic growth. Environmental Economics, 7(4), 120-129.
- Crilly, D., Schneider, M., & Zollo, M. (2008). Psychological antecedents to socially responsible behavior. European Management Review, 5(3), 175-190.
- De Groot, J., & Steg, L. (2007). Value orientations and environmental beliefs in five countries: validity of an instrument to measure egoistic, altruistic and biospheric value orientations. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 38(3), 318-332.
- De Sartre, A., Charbonneau, M., & Charrier, O. (2019). How ecosystem services and agro-ecology are greening French agriculture through its reterritorialization. Ecology & Society, 24(2), 1-19.
- Egri, C., & Hornal, R. (2002). Strategic environmental human resource management and perceived organizational performance: an exploratory study of the Canadian manufacturing sector. In Sharma, S., & Starik, M. (Eds.), Research in corporate sustainability: the evolving theory and practice of organizations in the natural environment (pp. 205-236). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
- Fellmann, T., Witzke, P., Weiss, F., Van Doorslaer, B., Drabik, D., Huck, I., Salputra, G., Jansson, T., & Leip, A. (2018). Major challenges of integrating agriculture into climate change mitigation policy frameworks. Mitigation & Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 23(3), 451-468.
- Food & Agriculture Organization. (2014). Building a common vision for sustainable food and agriculture: principles and approaches. Rome.
- Food & Agriculture Organization (2016). The state of food and agriculture: climate change, agriculture and food security. Rome.
- Fukukawa, K., Shafer, W., & Lee, G. (2007). Values and attitudes toward social and environmental accountability: a study of MBA students. Journal of Business Ethics, 71(4), 381-394.
- Fulconis, F., Reynaud, E., & Paché, G. (2019). Frugal supply chains: a managerial and societal perspective. Society & Business Review, 14(3), 228-241.
- George, J. (2014). Compassion and capitalism: implications for organizational studies. Journal of Management, 40(1), 5-15.
- Georgescu-Roegen, N. (1975). Energy and economic myths. Southern Economic Journal, 41(3), 347-381.
- Ghisellini, P., Cialani, C., & Ulgiati, S. (2016). A review on circular economy: the expected transition to a balanced interplay of environmental and economic systems. Journal of Cleaner Production, 114, 11-32.
- Gliessman, S. (2016). A milestone for food system sustainability. Journal of Agro-ecology & Sustainable Food Systems, 40(10), 1041-1042.
- Hoffman, D., & Franke, G. (1986). Correspondence analysis: graphical representation of categorical data in marketing research. Journal of Marketing Research, 23(3), 213-227.
- Ilea, R. (2009). Intensive livestock farming: global trends, increased environmental concerns, and ethical solutions. Journal of Agricultural & Environmental Ethics, 22(2), 153-167.
- Kershen, D. (2012). The contested vision for agriculture’s future: sustainable intensive agriculture and agro-ecology. Creighton Law Review, 46, 591-618.
- McDonough, W., & Braungart, M. (2003). Towards a sustaining architecture for the 21st century: the promise of cradle-to-cradle design. Industry & Environment, 26(2), 13-16.
- Michelini, L., & Fiorentino, D. (2012). New business models for creating shared value. Social Responsibility Journal, 8(4), 561-577.
- Moser, K. (2016). The decentered, ecocentric humanism of Pierre Rabhi in La part du colibri. Rocky Mountain Review of Language & Literature, 70(1), 59-70.
- Mugiya, D., & Hofisi, C. (2017). Climate change adaptation challenges confronting small-scale farmers. Environmental Economics, 8(1), 57-65.
- Mühlbacher, H., & Böbel, I. (2019). From zero-sum to win-win: organizational conditions for successful shared value strategy implementation. European Management Journal, 37(3), 313-324.
- Mujačić, A., & Nuhanović, A. (2013). Food and ecology crisis as the greatest civilization threats. Environmental Economics, 4(3), 26-31.
- Park, J., & Chertow, M. (2014). Establishing and testing the “reuse potential” indicator for managing waste as resources. Journal of Environmental Management, 137, 45-53.
- Porter, M., & Kramer, M. (2011). Creating shared value. Harvard Business Review, 89(1-2), 62-77.
- Rabhi, P. (2018). The power of restraint. Arles: Actes Sud Tomorrow.
- Rabhi, P., & Caplat, J. (2018). Agro-ecology: an ethical life. Arles: Actes Sud Tomorrow.
- Rockstrom, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K., Persson, A., Chapin III, F., Lambin, E., Lenton, T., Scheffer, M., Folke, C., Schellnhuber, H.-J., Nykvist, B., de Wit, C., Hughes, T., van der Leeuw, S., Rodhe, H., Sörlin, S., Snyder, P., Costanza, R., Svedin, U., Falkenmark, M., Karlberg, L., Corell, R., Fabry, V., Hansen, J., Walker, B., Liverman, D., Richardson, K., Crutzen, P., & Foley, J. (2009). Planetary boundaries: exploring the safe operating space for humanity. Ecology & Society, 14(2), 1-33.
- Rose-Ackerman, S. (1996). Altruism, nonprofits, and economic theory. Journal of Economic Literature, 34(2), 701-728.
- Sang-Arun, J. (2012). The 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle): an approach to sustainable solid waste management. Kanagawa: Institute for Global Environmental Strategies.
- Schaller, N. (2013). Agro-ecology: different definitions, common principles (Analysis No. 59, Division of Statistics and Strategic Foresight & Evaluation). Paris: Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Forestry.
- Schmitt, J., & Renken, U. (2012). How to earn money by doing good! Shared value in the apparel industry. Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 45, 79-103.
- Schultz, P., Gouveia, V., Cameron, L., Tankha, G., Schmuck, P., & Franěk, M. (2005). Values and their relationship to environmental concern and conservation behavior. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36(4), 457-475.
- Semenda, D., & Semenda, O. (2018). Assessment of ecological and economic efficiency of agricultural lands preservation. Environmental Economics, 9(1), 47-56.
- Stern, P., & Dietz, T. (1994). The value basis of environmental concern. Journal of Social Issues, 50(3), 65-84.
- Su, B., Heshmati, A., Geng, Y., & Yu, X. (2013). A review of the circular economy in China: moving from rethoric to implementation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 42, 215-277.
- Valentinov, V. (2008). The economics of nonprofit organization: in search of an integrative theory. Journal of Economic Issues, 42(3), 745-761.
- Weisbrod, B. (2004). Why private firms, governmental agencies, and nonprofit organizations behave both alike and differently: application to the hospital industry (WP-04-08). Institute for Policy Research, Chicago (IL): Northwestern University.
- Wezel, A., Bellon, S., Dore, T., Francis, C., Vallod, D., & David, C. (2009). Agro-ecology as a science, a movement and a practice: a review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 29(4), 503-515.
- Whiteman, G., & Yumashev, D. (2018). Poles apart: the Arctic & management studies. Journal of Management Studies, 55(5), 873-879.
- Whiteman, G., Walker, B., & Perego, P. (2013). Planetary boundaries: ecological foundations for corporate sustainability. Journal of Management Studies, 50(2), 307-336.
- Wiebe, K., Robinson, S., & Cattaneo, A. (2019). Climate change, agriculture and food security: impacts and the potential for adaptation and mitigation. In Campanhola, C., & Pandey, S. (Eds.), Sustainable food and agriculture: an integrated approach (pp. 55-74). Cambridge (MA): Academic Press.
- Wittneben, B., Okereke, C., Banerjee, S., & Levy, D. (2012). Climate change and the emergence of new organizational landscapes. Organization Studies, 33(11), 1431-1450.
- Woodhouse, P. (2010). Beyond industrial agriculture? Some questions about farm size, productivity and sustainability. Journal of Agrarian Change, 10(3), 437-453.
- Yue, Q., Xu, X., Hillier, J., Cheng, K., & Pan, G. (2017). Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture: from farm production to food consumption. Journal of Cleaner Production, 149, 1011-1019.