What’s an AMAP?
AMAPs (for Associatinos pour le Maintien d’une Agriculture Paysanne) were born out of an awareness of the crisis situation in the agricultural and food sectors.
The main goal of an AMAP can be summed up by the sentence: maintain and develop local, economically viable, socially equitable, ecologically sustainable agriculture with minimal environmental impact, creating economic activity and jobs, social connections, and regional dynamism.
Created in 2001, they are based on the notion of sharing and citizen engagement. AMAPs highlight a new vision of agriculture that includes social and ecological values in the face of industrial agriculture stiffling small producers.
Since they were created, AMAPs have evolved and have created a large network, or just a template, across the regions of France (e.g. AMAP network in the Île-de-France region, link in French) and even on the national (link in French) and international levels. This extended network has enabled the use of charters to maintain coherence between the groups of AMAPs, for example the Île-de-France regional AMAP charter (link in French).
AMAP Montrouge
AMAP Montrouge was created in 2007 by a group of citizens of the southern Parisian suburb of Montrouge and its surrounding area. Since its creation, it’s really developed and has become a true alternative to industrial food distribution for its adherents.
Today in 2022, it has 120 adherents and 12 producers providing a wide range of products: fruits & vegetables, eggs, poultry, beef, dairy products from cows and goats, flours, breads, honeys, oils, and legumes. The way AMAP Montrouge works is based on a contract that links its members with partner producers for an entire year. Through this contract, adherents are contracted to buy a part of the harvest of these producers throughout the year, which enables them to plan their crops and stabilize their revenues.
AMAP Montrouge also supports producers in another way: the baskets that represent the part of the producers’ harvests headed to their adherents are assembled accroding to the season and the harvest. That way, if the harvest is not even between two vegetables, the producer will be able to compensate with the one that has been the most fruitful.
This form of solidarity puts the citizen at the core of an equitable, local economy for the common good that supports local production.
Gandi supports AMAP Montrouge
Gandi supports community-based approaches that provide alternatives to large businesses similarly to how open source software does with big tech. In that light, AMAP Montrouge is completely in line with our belief that it’s possible to implement solutions from the bottom up rather than consume products coming from industrial agriculture that does nothing to support the local economy. To contribute to the development of AMAP Montrouge, Gandi provides them with web hosting as well as their domain name.
If this approach interests you and you want to join AMAP Montrouge, you can sign up to be alerted when contracts are available or try out their products (if you live in Montrouge or the surrounding area). If you don’t live near Montrouge or Paris, we suggest finding an AMAP near you so that you can also be a part of this bottom-up movement.
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