Dynamics of livestock farms and value chains in the territories (DEFIT)

DEFIT aims to analyze "the roles of livestock in the sustainable development of territories and food systems" by focusing on three complementary scales of analysis: households, value chains and territories. This involves developing knowledge, tools and methods to take better account of the "multifunctionality" of livestock activities.

This approach is prompted by numerous social demands concerning the evaluation of the role of livestock farming in territories, in particular on local development, employment, landscape maintenance, preservation of water and soil resources, GHG flows, health risks, and more conventionally, on the production, processing and consumption of meat and dairy products. Animal products play a special role in current food transitions. They raise specific questions about the development of sustainable food systems, particularly because of the intensity of certain societal debates: veganism, animal welfare, health and nutritional risks.

More concretely, the intention is to contribute to the co-construction of sustainable livestock systems and to the emergence of organisational and institutional innovations such as quality labels, certification processes, collective organisations, and sectoral and territorial development policies and strategies. These issues require a new approach in terms of livestock systems and value chains. They also require working in partnership on local field operations that enable both the capitalisation of scientific knowledge and the support of stakeholders.