Abstract:

The purpose of the study is to identify what legal instruments supporting short food supply chains and, more generally, local food systems are implemented in France. These rules have been drawn from a variety of domains and levels, including national laws, government policies, and local government initiatives and analysed in relation to various forms of short circuits present in French territory, which are the key components of local food systems, such as direct marketing, producers’ stores, basket systems, urban agriculture, and deliveries to public catering. Overall, the French instruments are multiple, diverse, mostly innovative, taking into account social, environmental, and solidarity values, and can be a good example to follow. Most of them are established on the local level, being thus an expression of new models of local food govemance, corresponding to the values of participative economy and food democracy.