The Protected Denominations of Origin Agneau des Prés-Salés de la Baie du Mont Saint-Michel et de la Baie de Somme, official quality labels committed to agroecology

This article presents the case study of the French "Agneau des Prés-Salés" PDOs as illustrative cases of agro-ecological approaches. It is based on an interview with staff from the Institut National de l'Origine et de la Qualité (INAO) and an analysis of the commitments made in the specifications. It details the construction of these two approaches, in terms of their genesis, organization, market-building support functions, levers mobilized and obstacles encountered. Although the operators interviewed did not at first refer to agroecology, their reaction to the elements of agroecology proposed by the FAO, and the commitments of the specifications show that all these elements resonate in the end. They can be considered an innovation niche, since we can observe a dynamic around the experimentation of practices that preserve both the characteristics of the product and the fragile equilibrium of these ecosystems shared by several users, and that the first approach initiated has inspired two others