Lock-ins and Agency: Towards an Embedded Approach of Individual Pathways in the Walloon Dairy Sector

Abstract

As the 2009 dairy crisis drew attention to the situation of dairy farmers in Europe, the extent of strategical power left to farmers in dairy cooperatives of increasing size is a frequently raised issue. Four dairy cooperatives collect 97% of the milk in the Walloon Region (in the southern part of Belgium). Two of them integrated agro-food multinationals. We decided to analyze the trajectories of Walloon dairy farmers exploring alternatives to the delivery of milk to these mainstream dairy cooperatives. We focused on the territories situated to the east of the Walloon Region, where dairy farming represents 75% of farming revenues. Alternatives consist either of processing milk on farm or in concluding a contract with a cheese processor collecting milk directly from farmers. Our objective was to understand the issues faced in these alternative trajectories and the reason why these alternatives remained marginal. We designed a qualitative case study based on interviews with farmers and local cheese processors. We mobilized evolutionary approaches on the stability and transitions of systems and approaches of change at the farmer level. It appears that the alternative trajectories remain embedded in a broader dairy context. The lock-ins emerging from this context determine the evolution of the farming model towards intensification and the individual identity and capabilities of farmers. We present a model of interconnected and embedded lock-ins, from the organizational frame of the regime to the individual frame. This model illustrates how the agency articulates with structural dynamics. We propose structural measures in the organization of agricultural education and in terms of support to alternative supply chains that will enhance agency in favor of a change.

Opening the organisational black box to grasp the difficulties of agroecological transition. An empirical analysis of tensions in agroecological production cooperatives

“…The publications which engage in this wider perspective fully integrating ecological, economic and social dimensions and going beyond the farm level, have analysed alternatives to the conventional agro-food model and trajectories of transition towards more sustainable systems. In particular, there have been studies of the interaction between innovative niches and the dominant socio-technological regime (Bui et al, 2016;Hermans et al, 2016), the lock-in mechanisms supporting the incumbent system (De Herde et al, 2019;Magrini et al, 2016;Vanloqueren and Baret, 2008), and the role played by alternative agrofood networks (Chiffoleau et al, 2016;Forssell and Lankoski, 2015;Maréchal et al, 2019;Whatmore et al, 2003). While these studies have highlighted the differences and interactions between conventional and alternative models, very few have investigated the contradictions internal to those organizations engaged in an agroecological transition.…”

Coexistence of Cooperative Models as Structural Answer to Lock-Ins in Diversification Pathways: The Case of the Walloon Dairy Sector

“…The region indeed holds a diversity of dairy farm models, from intensive maize and grass silage-based production to extensive pasture-based models (Lebacq, 2015;Petel et al, 2019;Riera et al, 2020). A variety of milk processing models based on different justification systems may act upon and further support this diversity of farm models (Touzard and Fournier, 2014;Perrot et al, 2017;Reviron and Python, 2018;De Herde et al, 2019).…”

Linking the social, economic, and agroecological: a resilience framework for dairy farming

“…Alongside this natural or biophysical capital is extensive social and economic networks and actors, including the farmers themselves, who make direct use of those resources (Beilin et al 2013, Kalaugher et al 2017. At higher scales, the system also includes the regional support and extension providers such as farm consultants, rural financial services, infrastructure, distribution, and processing companies across the value chain (Bélanger et al 2012, Kalaugher et al 2013, De Herde et al 2019).…”

“…Instead, researchers and practitioners have advocated the use of place-based analysis of the vulnerabilities of social-ecological systems, and of context-dependent surrogates or proxies to infer the complex ways in which systems cope with change (Bennett et al 2005, Carpenter et al 2005, Bélanger et al 2012, De Herde et al 2019). These proxies are characteristics or features associated with resilient systems, used in lieu of measuring resilience itself, to gain insight into a system's performance, flexibility, adaptability and capacity for change (Berardi et al 2011, Darnhofer et al 2010, Bélanger et al 2012, Cradock-Henry and Fountain 2019.…”