When High Environmental Value (HEV) Certification Strips Organic Farming: The Role Strain, A Way Of Reappropriation By Its Actors Of The Identity Of "Organic"?[Quand la certification Haute Valeur Environnementale (HVE) déshabille l’agriculture biologique : Le conflit de rôle, une voie.x de réappropriation par ses acteurs de l’identité de « la bio » ?]

The climate change places the question of our agricultural production and consumption patterns at the centre of crucial issues for decades to come. In this context, French organic farming (AB) is attracting growing interest from consumers and politicians. The cross-support to High Environmental Value (HEV) certification has shaken up the major balances that existed until now, revealing a conflict between agricultural practices both positioned in the field of agroecology and sustainable practices. The thematic analysis of 75 life stories of organic and conventional farmers (n=42) recorded between 2019 and 2023 and external documents including the "La Bio à Poil" movement of May-June 2021 highlight the place of HVE certification as revealing the singularities and identities surrounding organic agricultural practice. The study suggests, on the one hand, the specific role of social support (union engagement, demonstrations, collectives) as an adjustment strategy mobilized by organic farmers to face the perceived role strain, and on the other hand the opportunity that this conflictual space represents to contribute to the redefinition by historical actors of "organic" of an institutionalized and conventionalized practice and systems.