La Cité de l’agriculture is a non-profit organization created in 2015 and based in Marseille, France. Its major purpose is to support the social and ecological transition on the Marseille metropolis area and more.
Through the development of different projects, la Cité de l’agriculture experiments new models for food production, distribution but also consumption, accompanying the transition of our food and agriculture model. The major idea always was to decompartmentalize agriculture and food taking into account the absurdity of a model running out of steam. As a simple but speaking example, Marseille imports 98% of what it consumes and exports 98% of what is produced. That means that our food autonomy is very poor…
That’s why la Cité de l’agriculture is developing and managing different projects that are contributing to the relocation of the agri-food sector:
- Producing, with our experimental pilot farm Capri. On almost 1ha, this micro-farm is both a place to produce fruits and vegetables as well as a place to test different production methods and measure the ecosystemics benefits of urban agriculture.
- Making sustainable and healthy food accessible for all with several projects conducted in the northern areas of Marseille. The idea is that this type of food should not be a priviledge for some, but a right for all.
- Sensitizing both citizens and local public administrations in order to promote an agroecological transition of Aix Marseille Provence territory: this goes through “lobbying actions”, large scale events (48h de l’agriculture urbaine, Journées des Agricultures Urbaines en Méditeranée), or our documentary collection (400 books that has to see with our thematics).
- Connecting : On the other hand, la Cité de l’agriculture, has become an unavoidable actor when it comes to urban agriculture and the agroecological transition in our territory. With its position, it is considered as the leader of the local urban agriculture network. La Cité de l’agriculture is also accompanying and coaching “project leaders” looking forward to install themselves in the City as urban farmers.
- In connection with the latter, la Cité de l’agriculture leads an action that aims at identifying available land in Marseille that can be used for urban agriculture. The idea is to work closely with local authorities in order to secure access to farming land for new actors.
