L'alimentation des villes du Sud : les raisons de craindre et d'espérer

Over the last 20 years, the issue of "urbanization and food" has been oscillating between two opposite trends: the fear of the impact of urbanization on agriculture, and the reasons for hope. While cities used to scare ruralists, their spillover impact on agriculture is today widely recognized. Food crop agriculture has achieved the difficult challenge of feeding rapidly growing cities in developing countries. This challenge was met by peasant agriculture and a small-scale agro-food sector. Usually considered as informal, the trade and food processing sector is sufficiently organized to face an uncertain future. Since the 80s, research on feeding the cities has been focusing on the role played by quality in the functioning of the agro-food system. These studies lead to a recognition of the multifunctional nature of food, and in particular the importance of cultural factors in the food habits of urban consumers. Most of the papers presented in this issue focus on the dynamism of the actors in developing countries, and on their ability to organize and innovate. This approach tempers the pessimistic opinion commonly shared about these countries. Yet, it does not ignore the new difficulties they are facing. Indeed, new worries appear, including the growth of urban poverty, nutritional transition, the risks of marginalizing small farmers, all of which are closely related to the development of quality standards and to the growing role played by supermarkets. Conversely, new trends emerge, such as the consumers' desire for local products, or the development of urban and periurban agriculture. These evolutions should also be understood as a means to rebuild proximity in our relation to food.