23

The various shapes taken by large vegetable-growing and market-gardening farms have provided markers for the geographical and sociological study of metropolitan France. The present paper identifies these markers as listed by ruralists, and reassess them in the light of the results of a multivariate analysis including 695 farms producing vegetables in the Lower Normandy region in 2010. At first glance, these large farms could be categorized into three types of farming system, but some field research was needed in order to delimitate these categories with some precision. This field research consisted in two longitudinal case studies, analyzing a polyculture-oriented commercial business in the Caen Plain (Calvados), and a civil partnership ( Groupement Agricole d'Exploitation en Commun, GAEC), practicing organic field market-gardening in the Val de Saire (Manche). In spite of their highly differentiated histories and modes of production, these two large farming operations both take part in the alternative agricultural and food-production processes which arte currently invigorating the fruit and vegetable production chain.