33

‪This article analyses a unique figure present in Mediterranean farming since the 2000s in the form of pastoral sheep farmers in the southern Alps of France. We begin by underscoring the unique life experience of such farmers and then show how their professional rhetoric is based on three elements: the importance of grass for their flocks (as a place to live and as a food source), passion and freedom. We analyse how these pastoral farmers objectify their practices and confront them with those of the agro-pastoral farmers who constitute the local norm. They have an original point of view on their flocks, criticize certain agro-pastoral practices and defend their proximity with shepherds as they promote an original means of engaging in farming. We aim to provide a few markers for the analysis of this emerging model to help understand the issues and new trends underway in sheep farming in the Alpes de Haute Provence department.‪