Introduction
Local breeds are a part of agrobiodiversity. To go beyond the opinion that agricultural development is hostile to breed diversity (Hall and Ruane, Reference Hall and Ruane1993), some authors suggest that using local animal or vegetal genetic resources in local development initiatives can help maintain and valorize agrobiodiversity in a sustainable development perspective (Wood and Lenne, Reference Wood and Lenne1997; Rege and Gibson, Reference Rege and Gibson2003). Development initiatives involving local breeds are diverse (Audiot, Reference Audiot1995; Lauvie et al., Reference Lauvie, Audiot, Casabianca, Couix, Brives and Verrier2011): they concern local landscape maintenance, thanks to grazing (Tisdell, Reference Tisdell2003; Yarwood and Evans, Reference Yarwood and Evans2003), preservation or design of specific livestock farming systems based on local resources (BertagliaMormont and Trometter, Reference Bertaglia, Mormont and Trometter2005). Even for quality food products associated with local breeds, several types of development initiatives are observed (Audiot et al., Reference Audiot, Bouche, Brives, Casabianca, Gaillard, Roche, Trift and Steyaert2005; Lauvie, Reference Lauvie2007; MathiasMundy & Köhler-Rollefson, Reference Mathias, Mundy and Köhler-Rollefson2010): Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) projects (Verrier et al., Reference Verrier, Tixier-Boichard, Bernigaud and Naves2005; Lambert-Derkimba, Reference Lambert-Derkimba2007; Lambert-Derkimba et al., Reference Lambert-Derkimba, Verrier and Casabianca2011), direct selling networks (Coutron-Gambotti et al., Reference Coutron-Gambotti, Casabianca, De Sainte Marie and Gandemer1999) and short food supply chains (Herold et al., Reference Herold, Roessler, William, Moom and Valle Zarate2010), etc.
Local breeds' management and development are as a consequence in the heart of numerous stakes and strongly connected to other dynamics in their territory (from a social, economical and environmental point of view). As “local”, we can consider those breeds as resources for local development dynamics. However, only a few references are available addressing this link between local breeds and territory dynamics (e.g. Lauvie, Reference Lauvie and Hubert2011). As we consider this link being of first importance to understand local breeds' development dynamics, our aim in this paper is, by using a compared analysis, to present two contrasted relationships of local breeds to territory and to make more explicit the diversity of visible stakes in this link of breeds to territories. As a consequence, we will show how important it is to consider local breed management in link with territorial questions. We compare the cases of two local pig breeds raised in France in much contrasted situations: the Blanc de l'Ouest pig breed and the Nustrale pig breed.
After having presented both situations according to identified questions, we will detail the results of the compared analysis and organize our discussion around the question of the territorial dimension of the breed management and development.
Materials and methods
In management and development projects of local breeds one of the main global stakes is to maintain the population size and the genetic variability of the breeds (Boichard, Maignel and Verrier, Reference Boichard, Maignel and Verrier1997; Caballero and Toro, Reference Caballero and Toro2000). Moreover, analyses of case studies reveal specific stakes linked to the anchorage of breeds in territories. Our aim is to discuss, by implementing a compared analysis, the categories of those stakes and to show the importance of taking into account the anchorage in a territory when dealing with local breeds' development.
In this paper, we use the term of territory to mention a stretch of area used and managed by human societies (as defined by Brunet, Ferras and Théry, Reference Brunet, Ferras and Théry1992). As a consequence, we consider the territory with its both spatial and social dimensions.
We compared two local pig breeds in two contrasted territories: Blanc de l'Ouest pig breed (called PBO in this paper) localized in Brittany, France and Nustrale pig breed localized in Corsica, France.
The criteria used to choose the two breeds to compare are
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• The pig species.
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• The region: The aim is to compare cases in very contrasted context (geographic, agro-economic). Brittany is the first French region for intensive pig production, and there is only extensive pig production in Corsica.
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• The food product development initiatives: very contrasted dynamics. There are market facilities in Corsica, with a PDO application in progress (Lambert-Derkimba et al., Reference Lambert-Derkimba, Casabianca and Verrier2008); there are commercial outlet difficulties in Brittany, with the failure of a collective initiative (Lauvie et al., Reference Lauvie, Danchin-Burge, Audiot, Brives, Casabianca and Verrier2008).
We consider that a comparative analysis of two local breeds in the same country (same global and national public action frame), from the same specie (roughly same biological characteristics) but in contrasted territories would allow to bring out the characteristics linked to anchorage to territories and to discuss them.
The information on the two cases come from interviews and document analysis conducted during former studies for our Ph.D. Thesis (Lauvie, Reference Lauvie2007; Lambert-Derkimba, Reference Lambert-Derkimba2007). This information is used to detail each case history. Then a comparative study of the two situations allows us to identify elements that showed strong contrasts. We make the hypothesis that those elements are indicative of the specificities of the situations in each territory. We then analyse those elements of contrast in order to feed the discussion on the stakes surrounding local breeds, their development and their anchorage in territories.
Results
The first part of the results is constituted by the detailed stories of both cases. The narrative technique was chosen to present our cases, as proposed for instance by Christian (Reference Christian1998) and used by Brives (Reference Brives2001) or Lauvie (Reference Lauvie2007). In this report, we will present a summary of each story. The second part of the results is constituted by the compared analysis itself.
The PBO case in Brittany
The PBO is a pig breed from the Western part of France (Brittany and the regions nearby). Since 1970s, the PBO has known a decreasing number of the animal population. The population was replaced with conventional and specialized breeds well implanted in the region and associated with intensive breeding systems. But in 1981, the Institut Technique du Porc (or ITP, the National Technical Institute for Pig Breeding) started a programme of genetic management of the rare pig breeds, including the PBO pig breed. ITP took a census of the breeders and identified the animals. By then, the breed became known as one of the local pig breed in France, recognized by the National Ministry of Agriculture. The ITP established breeding advices, based on scientific knowledge in genetics, to manage the genetic variability in the population.
Then, a breeders' association, which took the form of a union of the breeders, was created in 1994 to manage the breed. They became the official association in charge of the management of the breed, linked to the ITP who provides technical help for genetic management, and belonging to the LIGERAL (Local Pig Breeds Herd Book). As a consequence, regional organizations have given a support to the association. The Natural Park of the Armorique Region, for instance, supports the secretarial work of the association. The association has also got a financial support from the local and regional authorities.
Several plans were established to find collective commercial outlets (for instance, a plan to work in partnership with a pork butcher). The plans failed but in parallel several breeders have organized individual ways of finding outlets: for instance, direct selling of cooked pork, farm inns offering meal with grilled suckling piglets. According to some breeders, the failure of the collective projects is mainly because of their location in a region where industrial pig production is dominant. They also underline their difficulties to slaughter as some public slaughter houses have closed (the industrial pig production works with private slaughter houses), and their difficulties to find commercial outlets. The breeders have to find their place in an environment where a conventional pig production is dominant.
Until the near period, breeders were in line with the genetic management requirements. The breeders are regarded as “good pupils” of genetic management as they mostly follow the mating prescriptions from the ITP. But for the last years, the assessment of the ITP (now called Ifip-Institut du porc-) has shown a decrease in the number of sows bred for reproduction. So, the population size of the PBO pig breed has decreased during the last years. Some of the breeders explain this phenomenon by the lack of structured marketing chain, which makes difficult sustainable production activities with this local breed.
The Nustrale case in Corsica
In Corsica, pig production was traditionally family based. Nowadays, pig farming system is based on the use of pasturelands a great part of the year. Animals are raised on several types of pasturelands with a very specific fattening period in chestnuts and acorns forest. The territory where the animals go to pasture is called “rughjoni”. During the winter, pigs are slaughtered and processed into local products, culturally rooted in the Corsican gastronomy. Producers are realizing all the operations classically distributed along the supply chain: breeders are at the same time farrowers, fatteners, slaughterers, processors, ripeners and sellers. Such an activity is giving to the single farmer constraints of quantity of work but it allows gathering all the added value proceeding from each activity. This represents an “ecocultural” system (Commandeur and Casabianca, Reference Commandeur and Casabianca2007) contrasting a lot with the conventional pig production nowadays in Europe and sharing some characteristics with Spanish and Italian local systems (Casabianca and Fallola, Reference Casabianca and Fallola1994).
After a long work involving many breeders and several generations of animals, Corsican Pig Breed Association has recently been recognized by the French CNAG (National Commission of Genetic Improvement). This recognition is at the same time the final step of the previous work for recognition and the first step of a new period: the management in routine of the genetic resource. In this perspective, managers of the local breed are stabilizing technical choices about its genetic (Casabianca et al., Reference Casabianca, Poggioli, Rossi and Maestrini2000). The regional organization in charge of this management is the first professional one appearing in this sector giving real references. Today the main task of this sector is to improve the capacity of farmers to produce pure breed animals. But many difficulties for this production are linked to the lack of infrastructures in the farms, and also to the lack of technical knowledge of farmers about genetic management of the animal population within an official scheme.
The livestock farming system is very stable because of the large independency from the other producers, from input supply and from the final market as well. But it induces a strong individualism that could be considered as an obstacle to the collective organization of the sector. Anyway, thanks to the dynamics around the breed association, a regional syndicate was created to be an official applicant of a PDO for Corsican processed meat. In this new project, a code of practices defining rules of production has to be fixed. Within the application, low growth local breed is obviously mobilized to insure a strong link with the territory. In this situation, new stakes around the genetic resources appear because of the fundamental role of the breed within the PDO project. As the breed is included in the specification of the PDO production project, the production of pure bred animals becomes a real challenge for the farmers.
Comparative analysis
The second step in our analysis is the compared analysis. The aim of this compared analysis was to highlight the main points of contrast.
The first element of contrast is linked to the biogeographic dimension of the territory.
In the Nustrale case, animals are free raised in the main part of the year on large areas: even if farmers use feeding with external resources, animals make use of “rughjoni”, that means rangeland attached to the farm (can reach several hectares of chestnut and oak forests, shrub areas, etc.). As a consequence, those systems are called extensive systems. On the contrary, in the PBO case, pigs are reared in diverse situations. Some farmers use small parks to breed their animals. There is no rangeland and those systems are closer from classical outdoors pig farming systems.
Concerning the location of the breeders, the geographical spreading of the PBO breeders in all the western part of France (three administrative regions) induces difficulties on the breeding animal's exchanges between farmers. In the Corsican area, a greater number of breeders are localized in a smaller geographical area. Even if geomorphological characteristics are restrictive, farmers can easily exchange breeding animals.
The second element of contrast is linked to the agro-economic dimension of the territory.
In the Nustrale case, the process of cured meat is based on local practices and know-how. The range of products and its seasonality is well identified and specific to this territory. On the contrary, products from PBO breed are based on individual strategies to valorize the meat. The range of products is very large and depends on farmers initiatives. There is no specific link to the territorial heritage according to the product.
Moreover, the food chain organizations are also very contrasted in the two studied cases. In Brittany, the PBO breeders can be considered as marginal in a context where intensive pig production is dominant. As a consequence, a large part of the services structures are privatized and PBO farmers have difficulties to find public slaughterhouses at a reasonable distance. On the contrary in Corsica, Nustrale pig breeders represent an important proportion of the pig breeders in the island. The local authorities support the breeders by financing collective tools (slaughterhouse, breeding animal centres, etc.).
The last point of strong contrast concerns sociocultural aspects. It deals with the involvement of several actors within the society in those projects. The involvement of regional public action and also the goodwill of the local breed and its products in the whole region are stronger in Corsica than in Brittany. There are in Corsica frequent mentions of the breed and the PDO project in the local press. There is each year a specific day organized for the breed promotion, and in general the breed is known by the various stakeholders in the territory. On the contrary, the local breed is not very well known in the Britanny area. There is few communication around the breed. The main engagement of regional public action is through the Regional Natural Park of Armorique, which promotes all the local breeds in different species. Other part of the promotion can be made by individual initiatives of breeders (agrotourism, pedagogic farms).
Discussion
Local breeds in their territories and development dynamics
The results of the compared analysis of these two cases show that local breeds can have very contrasted development dynamics, even in the same species and within the same national institutions context. This is linked to local specificities and we underline the importance of the anchorage process in a specific territory.
We think that other cases from other species and other countries should be studied in the same perspective to reinforce the idea of the necessity of taking into account local specificities in multiples dimensions, in situations with different biological constraints (different species) or different institutional and socio-economic constraints (different national contexts).
The link to territory in the development process of local breeds
The interest of this compared analysis is to show that local breeds from the same species can follow very contrasted dynamics. These dynamics can be comprehended only considering the breed in its territory with its multiple dimensions (biogeographic, agro-economic and sociocultural).
In the present work we considered local breeds with relatively small population size, while it is interesting to test whether this view is relevant for livestock breeds of larger population size, in particular when those populations show less anchorage to a specific territory, because of a wider extension with their growing population number.
The role of local breeds in designing innovate livestock farming systems
Local breeds are often presented as breeds that fit to local conditions, most of the time presented as population that fit to harsh environment and extensive systems (Denis, Reference Denis1997; Verrier et al., Reference Verrier, Tixier-Boichard, Bernigaud and Naves2005). However, as illustrated in our compared analysis, there is a wide range of extensive systems, where the local breeds are used, from rangeland systems to free-range systems. In fact, local breeds can be considered as not efficient in intensive systems compared with mainstream breeds selected to maximize their production in such systems, but their adaptability to a wide diversity of alternative systems more or less distant from classical intensive systems is underlined. As a consequence, they represent important potential local resources to be used in the development of alternative systems.
In such a context, our comparison shows the importance to analyse the breeds and their development dynamics in link with their territory when designing those alternative systems with local breeds.
Indeed, in some cases the alternative systems are designed at the scale of the farm that develops alternative projects compared with the dominant situation of the territory (as we show in the case of PBO with diverse initiatives from the breeders at individual points of views). We can see such situations for other breeds with more or less success. In other cases, the alternative systems are designed at the scale of a whole territory and are defined as alternative to the global dominant model (as we showed with the Nustrale case).
At both scales, the designing processes of alternative systems are based on various elements of systems among which the local breed can be a key element.
The role of local breeds in sustainable development
When assessing the sustainability of such an alternative we could raise the question of the role local breed could play in reaching this sustainability. This question can be raised both at the individual or territorial scales:
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– At the individual scale, the local breeds reflect questions about specific ability (from an animal production point of view) that give them adaptability to specific environment, allowing for instance valorization of local food resources, or adaptability to the process of a local product, etc. The local breed echoes also to questions of public image of the breed that can be of social importance for the breeder, but also of economic importance when a farmer valorize products from that breed.
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– At the territorial scale, the local breed can be considered as a common good. It contributes to biodiversity management, heritage and collective management involving a diversity of stakeholders (Audiot, Reference Audiot1995; Guyard, Reference Guyard2006; Labatut, Reference Labatut2009). In particular for what concerns genetic management, there is a strong collective dimension of the management of those breeds.
All those stakes around local breeds are strongly participating to stakes of alternative systems designing in northern country, to meet sustainability requirement, but also to face growing uncertainty (global changes, etc.). Those stakes also strongly echo to stakes for southern country (adaptability to harsh environments, resources for uncertainty management, adding value to local resources, etc.) and north/south comparative studies could enrich the vision of local breeds management and development dynamics.
Conclusion
Thanks to a compared analysis we underline the complexity of local breeds' management dynamics and we show the importance of analysing it with a multistake and multidimensional point of view. We also emphasize the importance of considering this management from a territorial point of view.
The linkage between local breeds and territories has an essential role to play in future research on the compatibility of animal genetic resources management and local development for the sustainability of agriculture and food systems, making a link between local development stakes and wider global stakes of sustainability.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the research team of the LRDE for their useful comments on a former version of this article, and particularly Jean-Christophe Paoli for his advices to improve the manuscript. We also thank Marie Odile Nozières for her advices.
