How does the choice of a marketing channel influence the adoption of organic farming ?

Summary

Recent sanitary crises have emphasized the need for alternative food networks. The intended objectives are mainly to improve the quality of food production and marketing channels. Because changes in the food supply chains appear to be closely linked to changes in agricultural processes, this paper tackles the issue of the influence of marketing channels on the type of farming, towards organic farming. The question is salient for fruit production which is an intense consumer of phytosanitary products and for France, a country which has adopted and reinforced regulations in favour of the environment. A statistical analysis complemented with econometric models allows to measure the close link between marketing channels and organic farming. The data are issued from the 2012 "Orchard Survey", a census of French farms which provides an overview of marketing channels and phytosanitary practices. We focus mainly on two main productions, apples and apricots. The results show that there exists a strong and differentiated influence of marketing channels on environment-friendly practices. Direct selling increases the adoption of organic farming while belonging to producer organizations leads to contrasted effects.