Interview: Chantal Peyer.
Text reading: Michel Sauser.
Directed by Sébastien Sommer.

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What does urban agriculture mean to you?
Hanging vegetables? A balcony in bloom?

Urban agriculture is a catchphrase for the need to reconnect the 80% of city dwellers to the smell of the earth, the taste of a freshly picked tomato, the feel of an earthworm on your hand.

So what’s it got to do with you? Well, everything! Because by delegating the work of the land to farmers in the countryside, we have become citizens separated from the soil…. At the risk of losing our understanding of what we eat and the world around us.

In this program #3 of the “2040 I’m there!” podcast, I invite you to :

• meet Nathalie Leuenberger, mayor of Meyrin, an innovative town that has placed agriculture at the heart of its new orchard district.
• listen to Emmanuel Ansaldi, Professor at HEPIA and Scientific Assistant at the Cantonal Office for Agriculture and Nature in the Canton of Geneva. He will talk about the different functions of urban agriculture and its potential for rebuilding the link between our cities and our countryside.
• take a trip into the future with a letter from 2040, discovered in the archives of the future.

Images of the Vergers eco-neighborhood in Meyrin

References

• Ecoquartier des vergers in Meyrin: https: //www.meyrin.ch/fr/ecoquartierlesvergers
• Orchard farm: https: //www.fermedesvergers.ch
• Coopérative la Fève: https: //la-feve.ch/le-projet/presentation
• Les incroyables comestibles: https://www.lesincroyablescomestibles.ch

To find a farm shop near you

• Guide romande de la ventre directe
• Direct sales directory of Swiss farmers
• Application mon producteur, which allows you to find direct sales farms near you: https: //mon-producteur.ch
• bioSuisse list of direct selling farms in the canton of Vaud
• List of direct sales farms in Geneva
• List of Fribourg farms that sell direct

Further information
Would you like to find out more about this topic? Here are the recommendations of Nora and Corinne, booksellers at Payot Genève:

• Cultiver la ville: l’agriculture urbaine pour la ville nourricière edited by Sébastien Goelzer, published by Vergers urbains, Ulmer, Paris, 2023.
• Sous les pavés, la terre : agricultures urbaines et résistances dans les métropoles, Flaminia Paddeu, Seuil, Paris, 2021
• Le maraîchage sur petite surface : la French method : une agriculture urbaine ou périurbaine, Christian Carnavalet, Ed. de Terran, 2020