Armored vehicles from the gendarmerie in Rungis (Val-de-Marne), in anticipation of the arrival of a convoy of farmers. The image of a blockade of the largest food market in France is in many minds, with the fear for some of a food shortage. But is this risk real? Is it possible to starve Paris? How long can the capital last if one day the entry routes for goods were blocked?
The answer lies in one number, 20 minutes was still at the time of this posting checking, cited by an agronomy engineer from the Paris Region Institute and taken up by all the press, and which would come from Ademe: “In the event of a supply disruption, Paris would only have three days of autonomy. » And for good reason, the city has, it is obvious for anyone who has already set foot in the capital, very little agriculture. Thirty hectares, according to Audrey Pulvar, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of sustainable food, agriculture and short circuits.
On average food travels 650 kilometers
To feed the population of Paris, it would be necessary to cultivate the equivalent of one and a half times its surface area. This is only possible on the Ile-de-France scale, and even then. In 1895, 95% of the fruits and vegetables consumed by Ile-de-France residents were produced locally. Today this rate is less than 10%, according to the IPR. Food autonomy in the urban area of Paris (defined by INSEE as “a continuous and enclave-free whole formed by an urban center and its peri-urban crown”), comprising 12 million inhabitants and fifteen departments (thus well beyond Ile-de-France), is only 1 .27%, according to a note from Think Tank Utopies (compared to an average of 2% for other urban areas, so barely more). In other words, almost 99% of the content of food consumed locally is imported. And not from next door. On average, food consumed in Parisian canteens travels 650 km, according to Audrey Pulvar.
The consequence of this almost total absence of food autonomy is that Paris is completely dependent on flows, and therefore, on transport. The change took place in a few decades, thanks to the industrial revolution. “The cost of transportation has become lower than the cost of the product. From there, we specialized in the territories. And we abandoned certain productions, whereas before, there was a real diversity of productions everywhere, explains Stéphane Linou, author of Food resilience and national security. We are infused by mass distribution for 70% of our food. We voluntarily made ourselves dependent, like an open-air nursing home. »
A “major” risk?
So yes, if we blocked all access to the capital, there would be a strong fear that Parisians would very quickly starve. For Stéphane Linou, expert associated with the Defense Security Laboratory of the CNAM, who studied the consequences of a cyberattack or paralysis of means of transport in the event of an energy crisis, this risk is very real, and undervalued. He calls for “considering the risk of food disruption as a major risk” and for “preparing populations for this risk”.
For others, the threat seems distant, especially in the context of the confrontation with farmers. “The Paris star road plan is a guarantee of resilience. It is easier to starve a town in Brittany. Even by blocking Rungis, other supply routes would be created,” estimates Louis Bernard, founder of Crisotech, specializing in crisis management. “I can’t imagine that the government is letting Parisians starve, the president has his sights set on Paris in 2026, it would be bad form to starve them if we want to govern them,” said Audrey Pulvar.
The managers of the Rungis market themselves are not worried. “As you may have noticed, a filter barrier was installed from last night at the market toll booths in order to check the professional cards of entrants. Concerning the national interest market [MIN]it worked and is working normally today,” says the organization’s communication.
AgriParis Seine, or how Paris recreates the local
However, this episode sheds harsh light on the vulnerability of the capital in terms of its ability to sustain itself. “The government does not at all encourage enough to favor local. It is a question of national security”, argues Stéphane Linou, who pleads for a “rebalancing between short circuit and long circuit” and that this question be “driven by public order”: “We need territorial food planning to that communities place orders with farmers and keep them there by purchasing at the right price. »
This is precisely what Paris City Hall is trying to implement, jointly with other communities in the Seine basin, with AgriParis Seine. Not so much primarily for questions of national security as of ecology, but in this matter, the two objectives come together. Paris, which according to Audrey Pulvar orders between 8,000 and 10,000 tonnes of food from France, has set itself the objective of having 50% of its supply within a radius of less than 250 kilometers from the capital by 2027. And the city is pleading with the European Union so that communities are authorized to reserve 50% of their market for proximity. “Today we have to be cunning,” comments Audrey Pulvar. A colossal project, according to Stéphane Linou: “Between the current 2% of food autonomy in urban areas and 100%, we have some margin. We need to create a game so that we don’t have to beat each other up if there’s a problem. »