Covid-19 and agriculture

4.11. 2020

An opportunity for the agricultural and food transition?
Michel Dron and Philippe Kim-Bonbled Eds.,
Presse des Mines, Paris, France -SBN : 978-2-35671-Price : 25 euros – Format : 16×24 Number of pages : 358.

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This book results from the contribution of more than 60 members of the French Academy of Agriculture who interacted in a digital forum for more than three months before publishing it in late September 2020.

Summary
Shaking up our scientific knowledge in terms of virology and epidemiology, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a global lockdown which immediately had serious socio-economic consequences
Paradoxically, it seems to be a catalyst for the major changes underway in the French agricultural and food sectors: agroecology, territorialization, digital, short circuits, food transition. It encourages reflection on the development of the European Union and its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). It forces a review of North-South relations in terms of world food security.
Interested in these events, the French Academy of Agriculture mobilized around a think tank that worked during the great confinement by videoconference and fed a digital academic forum.
It is these contributions and concrete proposals for an accelerated and positive change in the agricultural world, which are communicated to you in this book. With the Covid crisis, the French Academy of Agriculture has evolved into a 4.0 learned society!

Parts and chapters
This book has three parts and 31 chapters plus one special additional part about personal accounts from farmers:

Part 1 : The pandemic and its agricultural realities.
In this part the following aspects are discussed: understand zoonoses so as to act responsibly in agriculture, describe the resilience of our societies and of agriculture in the face of crises and the role of biodiversity, assess the old challenges and the new issues facing societies in the face of pandemic shock, assess the impact of geographical proximity and social distances in the pandemic, provide an update on the autonomy of French agriculture in terms of agricultural equipment and inputs and present the food security issue in Africa under such circumstances.

Part 2: Agricultural vulnerabilities highlighted by the pandemic
In this second part, the structural weaknesses of the sectors and supply chains that the Covid 19 has temporarily highlighted in France will be addressed : delay in research relating to plant biotechnology, soil vulnerability, lack of local diversification of agricultural production, protein deficit in animal feed, too slow socio-ecological transition, early beginning of organization of short food circuits.

Part 3 : Post Pandemic Agriculture
In this third part of the book, are discussed the ongoing changes in the agriculture, food and environmental sectors that the Covid 19 pandemic seems to have particularly “accelerated”.

Part 4 : “Ils” and “Elles” report on « their crisis”

French link : https://www.academie-agriculture.fr/actualites/academie/covid-19-et-agriculture-une-opportunite-pour-la-transition-agricole-et