Faire campagne pour sa ferme. Sur l’adoption des plateformes de crowdfunding dans les mondes agricoles

Crowdfunding consists of having a project funded by a group of contributors using an online platform. This article studies the adoption rationale and patterns of use of such platforms by farmers in the French agricultural context. It shows that crowdfunding fosters the emergence and consolidation of farms on the margins of the dominant agricultural models. It describes the additional work involved in launching and running crowdfunding campaigns and highlights the unequal ability of farmers to take advantage of this communicational and promotional tool based on the involvement of backers in and beyond his or her own personal network. Finally, the article shows that the drafting and publication of a call for funding requires the project leader to (re)define their practice under the scrutiny of committed contributors. The farmer is thus led to produce a narrative (or a storytelling) of a highly performative nature.