Qualifying the Corsican cheeses as pastoral products: Issues for market mediations

Pastoralism has been discredited for a long time on the grounds that it would harm the agrarian activities. Today, it is generally acknowledged that pastoralism has positive qualities due to the grazing by herds of spontaneous resources., Pastoralism has become a matter of public interest because pastoral systems are low inputs, is environment-friendly and is associated to traditionh . However, the products from this type of breeding do not have a real economic benefit of this turnaround. The paper analyses the possibilities to qualify the Corsican cheeses as "pastoral products," taken for an ideal-type, to understand how and to what extent the professionals of the market act to translate the pastoral features of insular cheeses. A survey conducted among producers and users of cheeses (restaurateurs, specialty retailers and prescribers) in the island and outside (Languedoc and Provence) asks: - what are the components of the corsican breeding (local breed, flock management and forage resources) taken for "pastoral features" and associated with insular cheeses? - what are the similarities and the differences of their market translations in Corsica and outside the island ? First, we present the distinctive components of the insular pastoralism used by breeders and the actors surrounding production. Secondly, we consider how the professionals of the market develop commercial arguments and describe cheeses locally and outside the island. Then, practical ways of incorporating the conditions of production to the qualification operated by the market are presented. Finally, to highlight the mode of existence of Corsican pastoral cheeses we propose to define two ways of qualification that we name (i) associative logic in which market mediations connect productive practices - pastoral features - with consumption practices and (ii) dissociative logic that disconnect products from their conditions of production.