Uniformization or Re-heterogenization: Maintaining Crop-Livestock Systems in Niches or Rethinking Major Trends from the Margins?

This conference conclusion examines the dynamic transformations impacting mixed crop-livestock systems, particularly in the Paris Basin context. It highlights irreversible trends toward specialization, uniformity, and intensification driven by historical lock-in, institutional structures, and global market forces. The author discusses cerealization, price volatility in cereals and soy, and divergent food demand patterns, from rising global meat consumption to stabilized or declining red meat intake in Europe. It questions if these systems will stay marginal or scale up, drawing on niche protection theories like transition management and advocating scenario planning to explore policy instruments and research perspectives for diversification and resilience.