General awareness of consumption and nutrition is growing: eating healthier, consuming more responsibly, or promoting the short chain as a way out of the agricultural crisis. In the Hauts-de-France region, the first agricultural region of France, several initiatives are emerging to create a new ecosystem beneficial to all.
In the Pas-de-Calais, an old barn has been converted into a store. It operates as a vending machine where local farmers deposit their products into lockers that open according to the customer’s choices. A concept already flourishing on the side of the roads where trays of strawberries or bags of chicory can be purchased from a dispenser. From those vending machines are also sold fruits, vegetables and some derived products like honey. All this is done to help the local farmers, who often suffer from the pressure of large retail businesses.
New stores are opening with a more ethical offer, like O’Tera which is developing in the Nord and Ile-de-France regions. They propose exclusively local products and at least 60% of their merchandise comes from direct distribution. In other words, O’Tera is the only intermediary between the producers and the customers. There are also the ‘farm drives’ where customers can come pick up baskets of products they have previously ordered online.
Consumers are opting more and more for local products and short chains in order to boycott supermarkets while being good to the planet and the producers.
Source: france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr