Mouans-Sartoux
Promoting local food and supply school canteens in the South-East Riviera
Description
Mouans-Sartoux is a small town on the French Riviera in southeastern France that encountered an issue in the 2000s related to the lack of local organic agriculture. Under the Smart Rural 27 initiative, a 6 Ha municipal farm was created in 2010 to promote the local cultivation of food and the supply of school canteens, and members of the public have also been contributing to the local cultivation of food through self-production. The Centre for Sustainable Food Education (Maison d’Éducation à l’Alimentation Durable - MEAD), launched by the municipality in 2016, spearheads the development and strengthening of sustainable food and agriculture on the municipality’s territory, and oversaw the development of the Mouans-Sartoux food strategy (2020–2022), addressing economic, social, environmental and governance issues. The main goal in the reinvention of Mouans-Sartoux as a “smart village” is to increase the use of digital solutions, as key factors in the town’s sustainable food project.
Technology
The Mouans-Sartoux Smart Village Strategy makes use of digital technologies for such tasks as mapping the land available for further self-production in Mouans-Sartoux and empowering local people through e-learning/Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms. MEAD’s website provides details of the local food project, serving as a significant source of information for other local authorities, while active Facebook and Twitter accounts are maintained providing regular information to both local people and non-local actors.
Target
The town of Mouans-Sartoux regularly collaborates with local stakeholders engaged in activities with similar objectives. One key goal in the town’s food project and smart strategy is to maximize public participation, for which sustainable food education programmes have been launched for students and the wider community. External stakeholders, on the other hand, such as researchers and civil society organizations, are monitoring the implementation of the strategy.
Impact
Mouans-Sartoux has launched an ambitious and advanced food project that is supported by the local community and has been recognized at both a national and international level. It is the first French town to boast 100 percent organic school canteens, from nurseries up to middle school (since 2012 for nurseries, kindergartens and primary schools, and since November 2019 for middle schools) and to set up a municipal farm that provides 85 percent of the vegetables used in school.
Partners
Terre de Liens;
Four Betters
Better production
Better nutrition
Better environment
