In the upward movements towards a more socio-ecological campaign, food is a key driver of territorial dynamics. This is a conclusion of our cash studies in Phase 1 of the Rural Resilience Project.
In Phase 2, we asked how a top-down tool like France’s territorial food systems can democratize local food policy. It is a state-led initiative, but precariously funded and without guarantee of organic and healthy food for the community. At best, communities take food into their own hands. How does French infrastructure compare to German food policy councils?
Part 1 of a policy research through the Rural Resilience Project.
“The EU can and will have to lead a wider revolution in the food system, and the proposed Sustainable Food Systems Act, announced in the Farm to Fork Strategy and due by the end of 2023, represents a key opportunity to get it going” (EEB Sustainable Food Systems Act Report)
The Green Deal and farm-to-table strategy may not be on the radar of many French people, but 2020 has had a historic milestone in the local food source with COVID-19 lockdowns and food shortages.
However, many French municipalities and other local actors have been operating in this slow (r)evolution from the beginning, in some cases for more than a decade, before the “Loi d’avenir” of October 13, 2014. It is Article 39 of this agricultural, food and forestry law that provided for Territorial Food Programs (PAT). In the run-up to its vote, local food programmes were promoted across the Regions in France (roughly to the Landers in Germany).
In July 2014, the Association of the Regions of France [with a large majority on the left, just like the French government at the time] followed the Rennes Declaration for “Local Food Systems”. This is a vital detail since the Regions are one of the main financiers of projects than the economy in general. In addition, in 2014, the French Regions have become managers of EAFRD financing, adding the LEADER programs, for the progress of environmentally friendly agriculture and monetary aid for rural progress through local actors.
All in all, the institutional climate looks very promising for the nascent Territorial Food Programmes (PAT), the French equivalent of the Food Policy Councils (Ernährungsräte) in German-speaking countries. However, has the French character of LAPs brought benefits such as investment to anchor structural implementation?Not necessarily. [See Part 1 of this research below. ] If the money available still turns out (well) under stated ambitions, to what extent does the mobilization and creativity of communities deserve to compensate for this disadvantage?And above all, what kind of territories in France present the optimal strategic and operational alignment between administrations, communities and satisfied citizen users?[to be published in Part 2 of this research].
One of the most glaring shortcomings is the thorny factor of financing, the general theme of this article.
In 2018, years before the “renationalization” of the CAP, researchers studied the phenomenon of the French Territorial Food Programs, which came into force long before the law entered the law books. They proposed a definition:
“LAPs are presented as collective territorial food programs, strongly rooted locally; based on a multi-partner approach; on the basis of a shared diagnosis of agriculture and food in the territory; oriented to a quality objective, which can be declined ethically, environmentally, health, nutrition, good taste, are transversal” (Territorial Food Programs: Between Change, Tradition and Stasis)
Figure 1, which perfectly summarizes this article, paints a delightfully transparent picture of the realities of territorial food systems that will ring real for local practitioners and decision-makers.
Change everything to nothing
The lesson: there is a threat of institutional stagnation, even for municipalities close to the realities on the ground. Although the factor (technical and unresolved) of investing is beyond the scope of the article cited above, the researchers recommend that a sufficiently good investment may only be an antidote.
This brings us to the Strategic Plan of the French CAP (NSP 2023-2027), which praises the merits of the Territorial Food Programs, at least in their first evaluation (diagnosis). The NSP notes that such systems can help young farmers get started, and may be a key target for French agriculture: 1 in five farmers short-circuited. (Note: The concept of relocating food supply chains first emerged more than 3 decades ago, when major adjustments to the CAP with milk quotas were announced, and when farmers’ incomes were threatened. )
However, the PSN does not refer to the Territorial Food Programs in its annexes on financing, reterritorialization of food and short circuits.
To perceive through what miracle these territorial projects can be financed, we will have to wait for a report through Senator Frédéric Marchand in July 2022: Territorial Food Programs – Faster, Higher, Stronger.
The report notes that for territorial food programs, food policy had a “budget of 1. 8 million euros year after year. “In 2021 (year 2 of COVID), this initial budget allocated through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty (MASA) was reinforced through 7. 8 million euros from the France Post-COVID recovery plan, and 4. 1 million euros from ADEME (public company for the ecological transition) for assignment engineering studies. This global investment of 13. 7 million euros from the French State has made possible: “the appearance of 151 new Territorial Food Programs in 2021 to bring the number to date to just over 380”. In other words, less than €100,000 for each new programme, approximately part of which is budgeted for by a full-time equivalent programme facilitator.
Some issues to consider here. Initially, the State will fund the position of program facilitator for 3 years from the time a Territorial Food Program is classified through the Territorial Food Program. the French State. Secondly, a clarification: part of this government investment is redistributed to the regional directorates of food, agriculture and forestry (DRAAF) for the regional animation of the Territorial Food Programs, that is, to federate all those battalions of substitution actors in the rate of coordination of intelligent intentions.
“State investment must then ensure the operation of the layout (light but necessary) and the portal of the Territorial Food Program” (National Network of Territorial Food Programs)
The layout also includes the occasional portal to report posters in public canteens. And a “generalist portal on sustainable and resilient food, supported through a consortium of institutional, associative and ADEME actors” is also under construction, the senator’s report adds. Little funding, lots of portals: it’s no secret in the age of fashion that the virtual generation comes to the rescue of underfunded political ambitions, providing tools of leverage and visibility.
The political will is very fragile, notes Senator Marchand: “Currently, the investment France Recovery for 2021 committed in 2021 for the release of three-year measures, but if you do not imagine a sequel without delay, all these paintings and this transition to more sustainable food will run out of steam and stagnate, which will be a massive loss and a return to the past situation, while food is one of the main equipment of the ecological and climate transition. The senator even mentions the perception of “opportunistic PATs. “: territorial food systems that vary with investment.
One of the key recommendations of the report to the French government is “to continue funding the measure for five years up to at least France Recovery’s budget in 2021, i. e. €80 million [on a year], while prioritizing funding for governance and non-unusual tools. So far “higher, stronger”: in a country of 67 million inhabitants and 30 million families, 80 million euros a year represents just over €1 to the user (two decades ago, some French cities allocated 50 cents consistent with the user consistent with the year for sustainable development).
Because eating more vegetables is at the core of Territorial Food Programs: guaranteed fitness and climate benefits!But those vegetables need to be peeled, chopped and prepared. Let’s take a closer look at vegetable processing.
In rural France, multi-stakeholder projects are controlled at the departmental level, which has little room for manoeuvre in its role as a “social shield” since the 2015 NOTRe.
Some branches have a dual function in the Territorial Food Programmes: they have jurisdiction over school canteens (lunches for schoolchildren aged 11 to 15) as well as socio-economic integration (including partnerships that run along the branch to provide jobs adapted to the marginalized). populations – financed through the European Social Fund).
Food processing is one of the missing links in the chain between farm and fork. In the case of culmination and vegetables, this refers to all the bureaucracy of processing, except dehydration. “Vegetable processing plants [are] a link in the food relocation chain. “said a first study on the subject. A very complex branch is Loire Atlantique, which had six vegetable processing plants long before the law of the future, with the option of necessarily associative craft units.
These main achievements of the Territorial Food Programmes are from the recent tables of the TETRAA programme (urban and rural territories):
“Economic operators more in the territorial dynamics [of the agricultural and food transition]: public canteens, small actors (food sector, artisanal producers), vegetable processing plants (often the nexus between public dining structures)”. TETRAA
To dig deeper into the topic and better map those achievements, we interviewed agents and elected officials from 4 French departments cited as the most advanced. Located throughout the country, those examples constitute 2% of the French population.
Population 534,124 (2019)
-A socio-economic integration company has been decided in a call for expressions of interest (before 2020)
-Search for brownfield to become a logistics platform for vegetable processing workshop: 2 failed attempts
Population 270,582 (2019)
153,287 inhabitants (2019)
307,062 inhabitants (2019)
Figure 2 presents the knowledge of our interviews, complemented by the knowledge of a portal made to be taken to the territories through two associations (Territories in the future).
The prospect of self-sufficiency of the territory is an indicator of the French arrangement Les Greniers d’Abondance. It varies greatly from one branch to another, between 30% and 73%, due to the different degrees of standardization of production systems after six decades. of the PAC.
A not unusual point for the 4 departments: a score of 0/10 in inputs. Healthy, pesticide-free foods are not the main source of inspiration for those regions. In fact, the French law EGALIM 1 has explained two categories of quality food: local and organic. The Holy Grail at least 50% quality products until 2022, adding labels, designation of origin and local food, and at least 20% organic.
Compare it to the town of Mouans Sartoux in the south of France, whose exceptionally high rates of organic food in school canteens (over 50% in March 2023), thanks to a municipal horticultural production programme, have caught the attention of the German public broadcaster. ARD.
In eastern France, Côte d’Or, the only branch in the table above without its own vegetable processing plant, has pursued a similar ambition: to create its own local market garden. This is despite a strong partnership with the Chamber of Agriculture. , which implements the CAP without frustrating its fundamental logic of long price chains and export-oriented agriculture. But it soon became clear that, for the overexploitation of the water table, the orchards and processing plant may simply not be located in the area. Here in eastern France, unfortunately, climate change is already making its fangs felt in our tender flesh.
One last detail to note: in the departments of Ariège and Côte d’Or, vegetable processing plants were perceived as a way to invest in and revitalize vacant land. An example of how deindustrialization and the galloping decline of the population of the afterlife can build the future.
A central factor for all the departments surveyed (with the exception of the Ardennes) is the articulation between the other grades of the French administrative formula in various degrees and decidedly vertical. The greatest example of success is that of Ariège in the south-west of France, where there is an intelligent complementarity between the departmental point and the sub-regional territory, with a LAG financed through LEADER. Local governments here, on both sides of the Pyrenees, are betting on locating INTER-REG investment: learning to draw on existing, long-term and meaningful EU investment is an asset.
The search for investments is inseparable from the spirit of territorial team in the control of Territorial Food Programs in general and vegetable processing plants in particular.
There is a dizzying array of funding resources, which can only be claimed by experienced or critically sized actors: the Ministry of Agriculture and its decentralised facilities (DRAAF), other budgets (such as the Ardennes Pact recovery plan), departmental self-financing, ADEME, and in all likelihood the European Social Fund and INTER-REG. And of course the Regions, as the managing authority of the LEADER programmes (unless otherwise decided through the President of the Regional Council, for the new programming era 2023-2027).
Finally, the recovery plan of the French Recovery Fund, co-financed through the EU, a golden opportunity to take advantage of an increased awareness, in the wake of COVID, of the vulnerability of our food systems, which can disappear as temporarily as a symptom of the virus.
And back he falls along the way. Hence BEE’s advice to make CAP a daughter law of SFS. Having tried the examples above, it will be transparent to readers, if you have already done so, that the largest war chest, CAP Pillar 1, will also have to be used in the call. to relocate food systems ‘faster, higher’ and stronger. “Without neglecting pillar 2 of the CAP.
Nor do we deserve the full mobilisation against food waste, helped through the EU’s circular economy objectives: if implemented correctly, it is one of the main self-financing resources for territorial food systems in general, and for projects such as plant-based ones. processing plants and the transition to organic farming, in particular.
Each of the 4 rural territories we spoke with (Figure 2) took a course of action between situation 1 and situation 3 in Figure 1 above. In Part 2 of this analysis, we will look at examples of achievements in situation 2: “constellation of food democracies”, where civil society is at the forefront.
Visit the Rural Resilience page
Rural resilience | A collective adventure
Rural Realities | Feet on the ground in the war for land
Rural Realities | Succession – Passing (everything) to generation
Rural Realities | Wellness Testing Grounds
Rural Realities | Networks make communities
Cultivating the future together – CRA Rural Resilience Meeting in France
France | Cultivating food justice: a village is needed
France | Meet the farmer-bakers who develop their skills
France | Meet the Farmer-Bakers Who Demonstrate Their Skills – Part 2
Portugal’s cross-resilience: our resilience campaigns in Plessé
France | Growing vegetables, sowing values – Part 1
France | Growing vegetables, sowing values – Part 2
What France can tell us about rural resilience
France | Agriculture in figures 1
France | Agriculture in figures 2
France | Cooking Fairer Food and Agriculture, Part 1
France | Cooking Fairer Food and Agriculture, Part 2
France | Rural Resilience – Timely
Democratize LAPs?Perfect the financing toolbox!
The situation “Ten years for agroecology in Europe” (TYFA) developed jointly by IDDRI and the consultancy AScA, in collaboration with a clinical council composed of leading researchers, shows that a fully agroecological Europe, free of artificial inputs and in the redeployment of grass meadows and the extension of agroecological infrastructures (hedgerows, trees, ponds, stony habitats) can sustainably feed 530 million Europeans until 2050. [. . . ]
Germany’s CAP Strategic Plan has the prospect of an ambitious CAP from 2023 to 2027. While the debate on the next CAP after 2027 is already beginning, in this article we argue that the German government will have to exploit the full perspective of the existing CAP to build the ambition of greater climate change mitigation and the coverage and enhancement of herbal resources and biodiversity. The coalition agreement gives them the mandate to do so. [. . . ]
Wolfgang Hees, is a farmer and representative of the German Association of Small Farmers of the Baden-Württemberg region. He attended and spoke at the Good Food Good Farming rally in Strasbourg on Monday. Below is what he said. [. . . ]
For the sake of transparency, ARC2020 makes available the draft regulation on NGT – New genomic techniques. The accompanying effect on evaluation is also available. Find all the documents and some key elements of the concept in summary here.
Co-construction proposals anchored in cash shares: Visit the task page.
Mathieu Willard of ARC2020 conducted a study on the long-term regulation of agricultural carbon. Download the report.
Seeds4All’s task needs to magnify voices and link other people interested in agroecological seed production at all levels. Learn more.
Did you miss one of our articles, or would you like to read it again?Find all our articles for this month here. Or browse our chronological archive that sells all items here.
The CRA is launching a report outlining the key facets of the CAP Strategic Plan approval procedure that started a year ago. Take a look here.
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While still evolving, the war in Ukraine is already destabilizing food security in Europe. Find all articles here.
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