Today, we are witnessing a process of enhancement of the value of breeding as an agricultural professional model. We are not addressing any type of breeding, but specifically breeding based on the feeding of animals with grass.

This process is settling notably in areas where environment protection claims are strongly expressed. It is the case with the Charente marsh where the League for the Protection of Birds militates in favour of its remediation as a wetland. This situation exemplarily illustrates the fact that today the definition of professional qualification criteria is not only internal to the agricultural professional circle. It refers to a process of discussion – between farmers of course – but also with different social actors that intervene around and in agriculture.

In the case of the Western Marsh, the stake of the discussions between actors is about the definition of management rules for the marsh that could reconcile agricultural activities with the protection of the wetland aspect of the marsh, and form the subject of terms of reference (“OGAF environment” since 1990, “farming territorial contracts” today). Analysis focuses on the identification of the way this process of definition (re-definition) of « good farmers » engages and operates. Which social interaction processes could explain the requalification of the Charente marsh ? And which social actors has been engaged in this interaction processes ? This interplay is observed according to an interactionist and cognitive approach, on two levels : on the level of technical arguments (the confrontation of the ways the marsh utility is conceived and problems are expressed) on one hand, and on the level of social positions on the other hand. What devaluation, re-evaluation of practices and social positions are operating ? What selective hierarchy of agricultural production systems accompanies this evolution ?

Beyond the redefinition of the job of breeder, this communication underlines the complication of the technical norms systems related to modernity and to the criteria of professional excellence in agriculture. In the studied case coexist the value enhancing of meadow-based breeding and of cultivation on the high lands of the marsh. The present redefinition of the job of farmer would hence be different from what occurred in the 50’s and the 60’s, when a unique professional model prevailed.

The authors question about the representation of modernity conveyed through the model of the meadow breeder and bring up some paradoxes (for example between the enhancement of the « moral » and « economical » value of breeding, since the revenue from this activity remains relatively lower than the one from cultivation). In this situation, how is it possible to be a breeder and modern ? This association is built on the present confirmed break-up between technical progress and quality of life progress.