MOSAIC : MetabOlism of agricultural and food systems in the city-hinterland continuum

Context and challenges

Bioeconomic strategies imply using technological innovations (in the broad sense of the term) to intensify and diversify the uses of biomass, particularly agricultural biomass (products and co-products). For researchers, the aims of the bioeconomy raise the question of the capacity of ecological systems and natural resources to support economic activity and to renew themselves. In parallel, they raise the question of trade-offs in the allocation of resources (food vs. energy; feed vs. food, etc.), between spaces, between uses, and between users. The challenge is to understand the interactions between the activities that produce, process, value and consume biomass in a systemic rather than sectoral way, and to account for the dynamics of the water, energy and land resources that underpin these activities. 

Progress and results

The MOSAIC project examined the flow of materials and energy between the town and the countryside, in a context In which agri-food systems are being called into question: relocation, non-food uses of biomass, the fight against soil artificialisation, and so on. A series of 3 distance (online) seminars was organised, showcasing a diversity of work and approaches and initiating exchange of knowledge between researchers. 

 

Project sheets

Project participants

Coordination :

Sandrine Allain, UMR LESSEM, sandrine.allain@inrae.fr

The consortium is made up of people from different INRAE fields, research units and divisions who are interested in finding the common ground between their research and are able to identify future partners.

INRAE structures