ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the emergence of the agri-environmental debate in France and the gradual implementation of a policy that, covers some 23% of the French agricultural land surface. The socio-cultural backdrop to Agri-environmental policy (AEP) is briefly summarised under three headings: the territorial importance of agriculture, the demographic and economic heritage of the French farming profession, and the relative absence of an alternative non-production related conception of French rurality. French AEP remained, at least until 1994, focused, first, upon land that was essentially marginal to agricultural production and, second, upon agricultural rather than environmental management styles. The centre piece of the programme, the grassland premium, is thereby an inspired juxtaposition of the classic French agri-environmental preoccupation, rural desertification, and the need to redistribute agricultural support. The decision to adopt a grassland premium was announced by the French Minister of Agriculture in anticipation of Regulation 2078.
