On the 29th and 30th of June, at La Ferme de Paris and in Montreuil (France), five employees of different AMAP Networks, including two persons from URGENCI, gathered for an important meeting for collective discussions on the French CSA movement from an operational point of view in the framework of the SWIFT Project. This Project, which stands for Supporting Women-Led Innovations in Farming and Rural Territories, is set up with the purpose to advance the position of women and LGBTQI+ persons in farming, and to investigate how agroecological processes can promote gender equality.
AMAP (Association pour le Maintien d’une Agriculture Paysanne) is the French CSA approach and there are Network organised in many territories and regions, that gather at the national level in MIRAMAP.
The Core values of the AMAP revolve around Agriculture Paysanne (Peasant Agriculture) and Agroecological Farmers support, Solidarity Economy, Popular Education, Care, Inclusivity and Food Accessibility, with very often a majority of women involved in maintaining these associations and their partnerships with Agroecological farms.
The vast majority of AMAP networks employees are women, highlighting and questioning the gender specificities of many of the operational and day-to-day implementation of the AMAP networking activities and their key impacts, too often made less visible than they should be.
A former French project called Dégenrons (2024-2025) led by Réseau CIVAM, and in which MIRAMAP was a partner of, explored the topic of gender issues in farming, and was already an opportunity to raise awareness on it.
This is therefore among the key challenges for the French CSA movement, and for URGENCI more globally, to continue to progress for more inclusivity and gender equity in Community Supported Agriculture and Local Solidarity-based Partnerships for Agroecology, including at the level of their different Networks.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or [name of the granting authority]. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement 101084561.
