The AMAP (Association for the maintenance of Peasant agriculture) |
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Collection title
JT soir Côte d'Azur
First broadcast date
03/20/2009
Abstract
The region was the birthplace of the movement AMAP (Association for the maintenance of Peasant agriculture). These associations are booming. The report evokes the activity of the AMAP AURIBEL, in Tanneron (Var), giving voice to producers, consumers and to the mediator. The purpose of AMAP, whose operation is subject to a charter, is to contribute to the maintenance of Peasant agriculture and to offer to the « AMAP people » a healthy food. The report is supplemented by the interview of José Florini, representing the AMAP BALICO of Nice. He explains how the AMAP operates (commitment for 6 months, deliveries of seasonal products on the parvis of the South Station) and evokes a success that doesn't allow to satisfy all applications for membership.
Production companies
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France 3 - Own production
Primary theme
Agriculture, breeding
Credits / Cast
- Pillon Gérard - Journalist
Map locations
- France - South East - Tanneron
Context
Mediterranean Landmarks
The history of the AMAP, Associations for the Preservation of Peasant Farming, is surprising for many reasons. It is indeed a social experience, created in Provence, in an industry that often seems, not without reason, rather retreated and not necessarily daring. Yet it is the threats to farms located in the highly urbanized areas of the region that have triggered this initiative and contributed to a remarkable success. The context of their success is that of the emergence of an ecology-oriented alternative agriculture called "organic" and looking for a way of life and production more respectful of Man and his environment. Organized around the Confédération Paysanne, this movement bests the most powerful and rather conservative farmers' unions.
The initiative of the first AMAP was launched in Ollioules, in the urbanized area of the "Grand Toulon", in a vegetables' farm bordering a hypermarket and the many other business facilities that usually accompany these establishments. Farmers, Denise and Daniel Vuillon, who are very attached to their land and have some experience in social involvement, discovered on a trip to New York the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that links farmers to consumers in a network that is "human" and bring farmers and consumers closer together. They also discover the Japanese Treiki, cooperatives of organic produce successively created in the sixties at a time when Japan was dealing with mercury pollution from the Minimata Bay disaster.
Taking the model of the CSA Roxburry farm, they proposed to adapt the same concept in France under the name AMAP during the first quarter of 2001. At the time, France was fresh out of the mad cow disease crisis and more and more consumers were concerned about food safety and at the same time maintaining local agriculture, beyond productivity-driven farming. The first AMAP was created in the Olivades, the Vuillon farm, in April 2001 thanks to the relations formed with the consumers of Aubagne; an open day allowed them to visit the farm and the first sale took place on the 17th of April in a parking lot in the city. A few months later, three groups of 50 families were formed and the movement spread beyond the Aubagne and West Toulon. A second AMAP based on dairy products was created near Draguignan, in Flayosquet. With this success, the Vuillons embarked in a militant journey to gather associations, with the support of Alliance Provence, and do what they called "swarming". The success is regional (12 AMAP in Provence in 2004) and national; with their model being adopted in the South-West, Haute-Savoie, Ile-de-France, etc.
According to Daniel Vuillon, it's about "leaving behind the market economy logic to preserve sustainable farming". It is also about promoting the preservation of farms with human dimension and know-how, relocating food, respecting seasons and biodiversity and therefore creating a network of consumers and responsible producers.
The report, shot in the Alpes-Maritimes department in which the peasant farming is particularly threatened by urbanization, illustrates the success of the association, eight years after its inception. The Var is still the home of the AMAP with 40 associations in June 2009, out of a hundred in the region, equivalent to 160 farms. In 2011, the region has 156 groups (300 farmers) distributing 7000 baskets to 25400 families, while France has 750 AMAP. These AMAP are often located in peri-urban areas and are oriented towards horticulture (fruits and vegetables), dairy or poultry production. Distribution is usually made once a week after harvest. The basket price is calculated in respect of the cost of production and not based on market prices. It is designed for a family (a couple and two children), with a minimum of ten products per season. As shown in the report, it is so successful that new customers must register on waiting lists.
Bibliography
Denise Vuillon, Histoire de la première AMAP. Soutenir les paysans pour se nourrir durablement (The Story of the First AMAP. Supporting the farmers to eat sustainably), Paris, L'harmattan, 2011, 258 p.
Annie Weidknnet, AMAP histoire et expériences (AMAP History and Experiences), Toulouse, Nouvelles éditions Loubatières, 2011, 192 p.
