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The Vosges slopes, once heavily populated, are affected by severe agricultural depopulation. This trend is occurring against a backdrop of increasing regulation of dairy farming.A detailed examination of the abandonment/resumption of farms and land over the period 1950-1980 shows that their geography was not ordered by topographic features, but mainly by the pace of succession in rural districts. By contrast, since 1980, changes to the agricultural fabric have been determined by strategies stemming from agricultural and environmental regulations that place new constraints on farming. This has revived the agricultural attraction of some districts affected by depopulation in the previous decades for farmers from the valleys, spurred on by subsidies. The agricultural evolution of the Vosges has become aberrant for residents and local officials and calls into question the territorial design of agro-environmental public policies.