NUTRITION POLICY: A NEW PUBLIC ACTION MODEL

Background and objectives: French National Nutrition and Health Program (PNNS) was implemented in 2001 succeeding many years of separated policy acts. This study analyses how the French government acts and changes to take action on nutrition issue which challenges its traditional intervention strategies. Are the existing traditional regulation strategies adequate or is it necessary to develop other regulation modalities? The study aims to understand the specificity of government action concerning nutrition and how it could constitute a new model for public action. Methods: This empirical research adopts a qualitative approach through the lens of policy instruments. The method applied is longitudinal study (Pettigrew, 1990). Data was gathered through 40 semi-structured recorded and transcribed interviews with public and private players involved in food policy and agrifood sectors, through observation, original written and audio sources and specialized literature. This material was collected between 2007 and 2015. Data was analyzed using table structures for organizing, comparing and ranking. Results: This work demonstrates the emergence of a new original regulation model based on state intervention on food demand and supply. It combines innovative policy instruments (eg. new type of voluntary agreements) with traditional ones in a particular complementary arrangement which we qualified as "discrete coupling of food supply and demand". By coupling supply and demand in a non-directive way, the state tries to discreetly transform : i) food firms, which invest in developing new skills and capacities of innovation, ii) its food products, which become healthier iii) consumers, who adopt dietary guidelines and new lifestyles. The stake of this long term process is that supply and demand meet in a more desirable position. We show that policy intervention on nutrition : i) cannot be reduced to the alignment of practices of demand and supply, ii) must allow state to build a frame of legitimacy for its actions, iii) must consider the offer and supply network and their interactions and iv) time necessary to allow behavior changes. Conclusions: This new model constitutes a new theory for contemporary state action. It allows economic growth with purpose which goes far beyond economic benefit and which produces a common good, improving individual and collective welfare.