Do short food supply chains go hand in hand with environment-friendly practices? An analysis of French farms

Summary

This article deals with the presumed relationship between environment-friendly practices, such as organic farming, and the adoption of short food supply chains at farm level. These two patterns of production and distribution appear to be linked because they meet the consumers’ expectations in terms of quality and proximity. Calling on the literature, we formulate testable hypotheses regarding the combined adoption of organic farming and short food supply chains by farmers. An econometric model with simultaneous equations allows the close link between the environmental quality of production and vertical integration to be measured. The data are drawn from the 2010 census of French farms which provides a full overview of strategies implemented by producers regarding their specialization. Particular attention is paid to two complementary farm specializations (wine-growing and arboriculture) which correspond to farms most concerned by organic farming. The results show that when a farmer practises organic farming, the farm becomes integrated and conversely when a farm is integrated, the farmer is likely to adopt organic farming. This complementarity of producers’choices offers certain perspectives for the improvement of short food supply chains while considering environment-friendly practices.