Rural France in the New Millennium: Change and challenge

ABSTRACT

After several decades of rapid modernisation, the French countryside is now being viewed in new ways that embrace nature conservation, recreation and tourism, not as separate from, but as integral elements of farm enterprises. Many landscapes and cultural features are no longer simply taken for granted but are invested with heritage meanings and are being marketed. Campaigns to defend family farms and resist globalisation of food supply reveal that rural France remains contested territory. Enlargement of the EU in May 2004 has also posed major challenges for French farmers.