Rearing lambs on pasture on the Causse Méjan: the issues and challenges of ‘organic’ production in a French national park

This study analyses the environmental challenges and obstacles associated with the development of ‘organic’ lamb rearing on the Causse Méjan, a limestone plateau that forms part of the Cévennes National Park (PnC). It examines the tensions surrounding an initiative to promote organic lambs by a small group of farmers supported by the Park for the ecological quality of their practices. On the one hand, this farming system – which is heavily dependent on the ecological characteristics of the environment – forces farmers to diversify their marketing channels and redouble their efforts to promote meat whose characteristics deviate from current quality standards (uniformity, pale meat). On the other hand, the PnC can neither fully demonstrate its support for these farmers with non-mainstream practices without risking further straining its relations with the local farming community, nor overstep its remit as a protector of nature. Faced with this unattractive situation, and whilst the ‘sustainable’ sheep farming that dominates locally offers attractive economic prospects, what choices will young people determined to set up in the coming years make? Doesn’t providing the means to support this type of small-scale experiment seem to be a key challenge in enabling the development, on a larger scale, of new production models that combine economic viability with ecological efficiency?