France – Community Supported Agriculture.

Proofing Details

• 27th July 2024
• Location: France

France –  Community Supported Agriculture.

In France I featured farms that are involved in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) whereby local communities support local farmers to have fresh seasonal products. Membership is growing rapidly in France as communities prefer to know where their food comes from and reject large scale supermarkets. The Cereal Farm featured covers almost 200 hectares and shows the scalability of ecological farms and the potential for other farms to also upscale the size of their operations.

The beautiful Fruit Tree Farm has fresh cherries, apricots, garlic and other seasonal fruit and vegetables that they sell. It showed young farmers and farm workers that are enthusiastically using ecological farming principles and they spoke about a promising future that is appealing to more and more people. They are also utilising technology, for example, with a tractor that has GPS, and also online platforms to support CSA and connect themselves to consumers.

The recently opened ‘Superhalle’ supermarket caters to locals, young and old, who are keen to contribute to the organic movement. Local producers volunteer half a day each week and in return they can sell directly to customers. Customers enjoy the fact that everything sold there is free from harmful chemicals and they like to take their children to somewhere that does not push sugary treats and drinks. There is an extensive range of local fruits and vegetables as younger people reduce their meat consumption and enjoy new and exciting recipes where meat is not the focal point. Their website also has photos and stories about local farmers that supply the store. This further strengthens the personal connection by putting a face to the farmer.

The organic market in Paris showed the growing popularity of ‘buying organic’ in cities where people are becoming more conscious of what they buy and where it comes from. This is for their health, to support local farmers and due to their increasing awareness of corporate control and environmental damage shown in the media.