« EVERYONE HATES LA PALLICE »: THE INFLUENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF A LARGE PORT FACILITY ON A COASTAL AREA IN FRANCE

Abstract

This article retraces the historical evolution of the port of La Rochelle-La Pallice and its agricultural hinterland from post-war modernization to contemporary ecological conflicts. During the summer of 2024, the actions of a group of protesters in La Rochelle using the collective name: “Bassines non merci” revealed how historical tensions between port development, intensive agriculture and water management persist. These protests also served to highlight the central role of the port in the region’s specialization in grain production and the agro-industry’s dependence on practices that are unsustainable. Based on analysis of a corpus of archives (1945-1975) and scientific literature, supplemented by participant observation, this paper analyses the physical evolution of the port, the narratives that legitimized its growth and the way in which these narratives are now being challenged. Between 1945 and 1975, the dominant narrative was one of modernisation. With the support of the Marshall Plan and the “green revolution”, it combined agricultural productivity, land consolidation, and massive grain exports. The Action Committee of the Great Port of La Pallice, created in 1948, played a central role in this narrative. Through its economic reports and links with the Planning Commission, it promoted the idea of a port serving the national agricultural recovery. This vision of a strategic grain port as a symbol of technical progress and regional prosperity was realized through a series of concrete developments, such as the building of grain silos and the extension of the pier and oil jetty. From the 1980s onwards, this model entered a period of crisis. The rise of irrigated corn, the proliferation of boreholes and the increasing scarcity of groundwater increased environmental awareness. The droughts of 1976 and 1989 led to campaigns to preserve rivers and to protests against a system accused of monopolizing water resources. In the 2000s, the port and agricultural cooperatives adopted a discourse of corporate social responsibility (CSR) that sought to reconcile competitiveness and sustainability through a series of initiatives such as sustainable development charters, ISO certifications and regional partnerships. This narrative of transition, however, served to prolong the logic of productivism without fundamentally questioning it. There thus continued to be conflicts over mega-basins, perceived as a continuation of the export-oriented agro-industry. Such protests illustrate the limits of the narrative of transformation and the rise of structured opposition, particularly after Sainte-Soline (2023). Today, a new narrative is emerging that focuses on the notion of territorial commons. This perspective is driven by civil society and certain public actors. It promotes a form of polycentric governance that integrates humans and non-humans and is focused on the collective management of resources such as water. The conceptual shift from CSR to Territorial Corporate Responsibility (TCR) reflects this search for a more resilient and cooperative model. The history of the port of La Pallice thus illustrates how economic and political narratives have a lasting impact on territories and how their contemporary reinterpretation paves the way for a new social and ecological order.