Vers une nouvelle fonction de l'agriculture périurbaine

Towards a New Function of Periurban Agriculture. The author maintains that, in the domain of periurban agriculture, ecological considerations must take priority over economic ones. To defend this argument, he describes the development of the American megalopolis; If France is to avoid similar disasters, we should restructure the town intra muros and thoughtfully divide suburban areas among urbanization, agriculture and parks. The urban planner must understand the spatial consequences of demographic and economic expansion and try to minimize the negative or parasitic consumption of space (urbanized surfaces are surrounded by wastelands where fields and forests have been destroyed but not yet replaced by urban constructions), while not neglecting the positive consumption (each urban inhabitant requires 300 to 400 square meters of land). After examining the inadequacies of contemporary economic policies concerning the localization of agricultural areas, the author explains the concept of "agricultural zones of ecological protection" (ZAPE). Using statistical information on the chemical and biological pollution produced by industrialized farming techniques, he determines the location of these zones in relation to urban centers and the nature of the agricultural activities that should be practiced. He then compares the different means by which a community can acquire the land necessary to create a ZAPE, considering also the cost of such a zone and the ways available to finance It. Ecological protection rather than economic profit should determine agricultural and urbanization policies, and the concept of "gross national product" should be replaced by that of "gross national happiness

Agrarian society · Agricultural land · Agriculture · Consumption (sociology · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental protection · Geography · Land use · Natural resource economics · Sociology · Urban sprawl · Urbanization · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Ecology · French Urban and Social Studies

• Les territoires périurbains

  Open Access•Monique Poulot•Géocarrefour•2008

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