A Tale of Two Big Cities Struggling for Their Agriculture Conflict and Oppositions Around Land Farming in the Greater São Paulo and Paris Regions

The objective of this paper is to discuss the emergence of land use conflicts in the maintenance or support of agricultural land near large urban agglomerations. These conflicts are potentially the greatest limiting factors for food production under the influence of urban centers. For this, we take the example of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo (RMSP) and the Greater Paris Region (Île-de-France), which despite being the largest urban areas in their countries, are territories that address the importance of farmland preservation both in their peri-urban spaces, focused on contributing to local food security, and in their more densely urbanized spaces where other dynamics such as social relations around food issues are more prominent. Initially, we briefly go over the issues and concepts related to peri-urban agriculture, to then address the notions of land use conflicts and their implications on agricultural production spaces. Afterward, we report on the methodology used, based on interviews with experts, analysis of the regional daily press, and the presence of blogs and websites about the local realities for each of these regions. Subsequently, we discuss and compare the results obtained for each locality, its relations with local actors, public policies, agrarian issues, and other forms of occupation of space. We conclude with some ideas about the maintenance of peri-urban agriculture in these territories, despite prevailing conflicts.