In 2020, our chair took part in a study on the logistics models of urban farms in Paris, as our former coordinator, Fanny Provent, worked on this specific topic. She had the opportunity to collaborate with Gwenaëlle Raton, a researcher at Gustave Eiffel University, and also supervised a fourth-year engineering project at ISTOM with 10 students. The outcome is rich and insightful for those who care about and work in the field of urban agriculture.
Urban agriculture has been developing fast in recent years, which raises many questions about the viability and sustainability of these projects. One of the issues underpinning this sustainability is the distribution of food produced in urban centres. Starting from the premise that production close to consumers in the city would facilitate direct sales as well as logistical tasks such as packaging and delivery, the question then arises of how to adapt these just-in-time systems to an environment which offers many opportunities but also imposes constraints (congestion, pollution, limited space). The first study by Fanny Provent and Gwenaëlle Raton was the subject of a more comprehensive article published in the journal Territoires en Mouvement, and aims to understand the extent to which urban location helps to structure sustainable logistics, for example by limiting journeys and emissions, or by strengthening relational proximity and enabling a quick turnaround between harvesting and consumption. The aim is to highlight the diversity of production and commercial models for urban agriculture in Paris and to study their impact on the organisation of logistics, revealing the constraints that the urban environment puts on its day-to-day planning.
The english summary is available here : https://www.chaire-agricultures-urbaines.org/_files/ugd/d88e76_aaa1a00be3224f9f8e2a9aa8fc245d2e.pdf
Following the study carried out in 2020 on the logistics of urban farms in Paris, we wanted to explore this logistics issue in greater depth by studying another major French city to see whether the logistical organisation patterns encountered in Paris were unique or found in other areas. We chose the Marseille metropolitan areas because it is a major city with a wide range of urban farming projects and public policies to promote their development, and it has a very different, far less dense, urban structure to Paris.
This study was carried out as part of a 4th year engineering project at ISTOM, an international agri-development engineering school based in Angers. The project is called Mission Jeunes Experts (MJE) on Resilient and Self-Sufficient Urban Agriculture (AURA) and has 10 members. It involved Mahée Autunno, Camille Briel, Amy Cisse, Jeanne Djomondilo, Paul Gatineau, Thérèse Gohin, Yannis Lancien, Léane Pedron, Antoine Petrequin and Sarah Surinon-Garnier for the period from December 2020 to September 2021.
The english summary is available here : https://www.chaire-agricultures-urbaines.org/_files/ugd/d88e76_c851f24acec7425185d2c3ecd5d23856.pdf
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