In our new episode of podcast Wait a minute !, make way for the report with our new meeting “En Tête à Terre”. For this first episode, we follow Marie, 28 years old, market gardener at
Gonesse, in the Val-d’Oise. In this territory located between the airports of Bourget and Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, north of Paris, little land has remained agricultural in the face of increasing urbanization. The land becomes a reason for struggles.
“When you are a market gardener, you are necessarily an activist. Deeply even. And all the more so when you are in Gonesse, where you do not necessarily feel welcome when you are a farmer, ”says Marie in this report. Due to the scarcity of agricultural land, and, in fact, that of market gardeners, only 1 to 2% of the consumption of fresh produce in Ile-de-France is ensured locally.
Only a few kilometers from the crops of the Proix family, 280 hectares of agricultural land have been declared “zone to be defended” by a handful of activists hoping to save the remains of agriculture in need of space.
Coveted lands
Despite multiple expropriations and the permanent threat of urbanization, Marie Proix followed in her father’s footsteps, even if “you don’t necessarily feel welcome when you are a farmer”.
Each plot is a nugget that everyone is snapping up. This is evidenced by the battle being played out in the agricultural triangle adjoining the town. Despite the abandonment of the mega-complex project called Europa City, the 280 hectares of agricultural land remain coveted by its owner, Grand Paris Development, which continues the project to build a station with a business district. To the detriment of the farmers who continue to cultivate these lands.
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