Les enjeux de la transition agri-alimentaire dans une ville intermédiaire : l’étude de Pau et du projet « Ceinture Verte Pays de Béarn »

This article, linked to a thesis in progress, focuses on the intermediate town of Pau in south-western France and its agri-food transition, concentrating on a territorial green belt project, the “Ceinture Verte Pays de Béarn”. In recent years, there has been renewed interest in the strategic place that intermediate towns occupy within territorial organization, as pivotal cities between urban and rural areas. By drawing intense political and societal attention, the intermediate city is seen as a fertile ground for the agri-food transition, with relocalization and territorialization movements linking agriculture, food and territory. The article focuses on the “Ceinture Verte Pays de Béarn”, a pioneering project in France that was created in Pau in 2019 between the Communauté d’Agglomération Pau Béarn Pyrénées, the urban community of which Pau is a part, and a private investor. This business model, which has been developed in other regions in France, is based on a land leaseback system, which involves the purchase and provision of farmland and the loan of equipment to help market gardeners set up. This article looks at how this project reflects a new strategy of agricultural and food relocation, in terms of the tool used and its implementation, governance and scope. The article aims at highlighting the role of stakeholders in the territorialization of the agri-food transition, where operational, lived, spatial and relational proximities come into play. By questioning the geographical scale of this territorial project and analyzing the tensions between stakeholders, the article shows the prefiguration of an “intermediary” territorial system, reflecting the need to articulate several territorial scales in order to achieve transition. This very recent model raises questions about access to agricultural land and networking between stakeholders. Thus, our work is based on two methodological approaches, carried out between 2019 and 2021, in order to capture the logic of action and coordination between stakeholders : a participatory observation approach and individual semi-directive interviews with some 40 people (elected representatives, directors and project managers) targeted as multi-faceted professionals from public action, trade unions and agricultural and environmental support organizations.