Introduction

The trip was planned as a reverse visit after representatives of an AMAP from Angers area visited Bulgaria in December 2008. They introduced, for the first time, to Bulgarian organic producers and representatives of consumers the concepts on which AMAPs are founded and how they function.

Our Bulgarian visiting group consisted of three ladies: Lalka Chonlova, co-owner of organic farm in the region of Karlovo, Bulgaria, Tania Boyajieva, a representative of a group of consumers from Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria and Vania Kuncheva, interpreter.

The idea behind the trip was to introduce to us different producers and groups of consumers who are part of an AMAP in the region of Angers and help us to get first hand experience on the practical issues of forming and running of AMAP. The information gathered was to be used in the running of the first structure in Bulgaria which would be similar to AMAP. This structure was formed about three weeks prior to our arrival in France. It started with a box delivery scheme of fresh vegetables produced in the organic farm ran by Lalka and her husband Ivan and driven to Sofia with the help of Bioselena. Bioselena is a Swiss funded foundation which is providing consultations to Bulgarian farmers on organic farming.

The buyers of the vegetables were a group organized by Tania, consisting of about 30-40 people of different professions who all used to visiting a wellness center in Bulgaria. They were introduced to the benefits of consuming organic products by the founder of the center, Dr Emilova. After these first three weeks we already encountered some difficulties and were very curious to see how things were organized in France. Lalka was very interested in the methods used by the French growers of organic vegetables as her two years experience in this respect was full of difficult moments and search for finding effective ways for the production. But her biggest problem like for most producers was the distribution of her production. Thus, the idea of having it bought in advance sounded to her extremely appealing.

Day One - Arriving in Angers, visit to CABA Bio-coop.

After a comfortable flight, we took the train from Paris and arrived in Angers around lunchtime. We were met by very hot weather for the local standards – about 33° Celcius. Francine Fleuron and Dominique Baudouin picked us at the railway station and took us to the nice and artistically decorated house of Francine. There we had our first encounter with the fresh bio-products from the Angers region – we were told by Francine that all the vegetables in the tasty salad and the lovely cheeses we had for lunch were bought either through her AMAP or the CABA Bio-coop.

Shortly after the lunch we were already heading towards the CABA Bio-coop in Angers. There, we met Cloude Kolen – the president of the chain of CABA Bio-coops in the region. For people like us, coming from former communist country, it was extremely interesting to see how the idea of a cooperative organized by consumers is functioning.

Before the changes to market economy in 1989, practically all our agriculture was organized in cooperatives. The most popular place for buying vegetables and fruits in towns were the so called cooperative markets where each producer would hire a stand and sell their fresh products directly to the consumers. Unfortunately, after the political changes in Bulgaria, most cooperatives were destroyed and vast areas of land were left without farming.

Later big producers appeared to be those who are using the most the methods of intensive monoculture growing. But still the majority of people in small villages produce fruit and vegetables for their families in their own gardens using very primitive and not-very effective methods. The cooperative markets still exist in principle, but almost every stand nowadays functions as an ordinary shop. They have been occupied by company owners who are buying production from the fruit and vegetable exchange market and are selling them on the stands with very inflated prices. The fruits and vegetables are no longer more fresh than the ones in supermarkets. The consumers seem to be totally blind about the way these products are produced and the amount of chemicals which are used for their production.

For us, it was very interesting to see how the local CABA Bio-coops have been winning the confidence of the consumers. It was instructive also to observe how do they guarantee that everything in the shops is fresh and produced according to the bio-standards. Mrs Kolen told us the history of how the organization was founded as a non-profit organization and that; in fact, its owners are the consumers. We understood that it is ran by an elected managerial board and that the president is the guarantor for the quality of the products which are sold.

Despite the busy program, Francine managed to find time to show us Loire River which stood very beautiful and dramatic in the stormy weather. We admired the fight of local people to have the river free of commercial transport and their struggle for not allowing water gates to be built.

The day finished with an evening dinner together with other members from two AMAPs – the AMAP of the Goganes and AMAP of the Water Drop. We were impressed how friendly everybody was, what nice relations they have been building with each other. Everybody had brought dishes with home -made organic food.

The other guests shared their stories how participation in AMAP schemes changed their life. For the producers, it meant security and much better health, satisfaction and pleasure in work. For the consumers, the benefits were those of getting very fresh products, usually picked the same day. Moreover, this activity seems to engender a rather small carbon print, due to the proximity of all suppliers. The consumers thus also enjoy a much valuable feeling of wellbeing based on this sense of promoting natural and environmentally sustainable agriculture. The friendly relations formed between the members of the AMAP seemed to be extremely important, as well as the feeling of belonging to a group where everybody is friendly and ready to help when necessary.

Day Two - Visit to vegetable and dairy organic farms. Visit of community owned shop at Layon.

Our second day started with a visit to the vegetable farm of Nicolas Hazebrouck. This visit was one of the most interesting moments of the trip for Lalka, who is running  an  organic vegetable farm with her husband. She was impressed by the simple, but effective methods used for weed control. Lalka also compared the bio-approved pesticides they are using in Bulgaria with the ones in use in France. Nicolas explained us how participation into the AMAPs allows him to concentrate on the work he likes and for which he feels the most competent: growing vegetables. In the past he used to spend a lot of time at the markets and negotiating with the whole-sellers.

The next place we visited was the community ran organic shop at Layon. It was very interesting for us to observe that private business failed to establish successfully running shop in the village for several years. The village was subsequently left without a shop where inhabitants could buy the essentials. At some point, a shareholding organization was created by people from the village. It reminded us the ideas which were propagated in socialist times in Bulgaria, when all the shops and factories were nationalized and belonged to the people. Unfortunately, in our country the socialist idea did not work in practice due to poor management and lack of effective control on the side of the public.

As we understood, in Layon, a supervisory board looks very closely at the functioning of the operations and finances. It gives assurance to the villagers that their money is invested properly and to their interest. Our opinion is that it would take some time until such concept could be applied in Bulgaria. There, people are a bit too suspicious of such schemes. Moreover, there have been a lot of cases in the past were they have effectively been cheated. It really needs a certain maturity on the side of the society for similar initiatives to be successful. Although we are skeptical about the possibilities for application in the Bulgarian society, we were still very glad to see that this has been happening in France.

The last visit for the day was at Alain’s milk dairy farm. We could see how the milk is pasteurized and processed to cheese and other milk products. We were enthusiastic about the immaculate cleanness of the dairy which no doubt is very important for the quality of the final products. We liked very much the fact that in France the regulations for small dairy producers who are selling locally do not seem that strict. This reflects beneficially to the end price of the product. Unfortunately for us, in Bulgaria, the regulations for big industrial milk processing factories are the same as for the small dairy farms. Such setting would be impossible. It is clear that in order to follow the French example, we, as consumers, need to struggle for some changes in the legal framework regarding food processing in Bulgaria. The day finished with a lovely dinner al fresco at Alain’s farm. We enjoyed extremely much the high quality of all the food, the nice atmosphere and the friendliness of everybody. Definitely, French people do know how to live well!

Day Three – Visit to vegetables, apples and beef organic farms. Observing the distribution of baskets  for the AMAP de Goganes

On Day 3, we kept on visiting organic farms. The first was the vegetable growing farm of Nicolas Oran. We continued our acquaintance with the way the AMAP system works. Most important was the understanding that the producer and the consumer should communicate very closely and the consumers should know about potential and existing problems of the producer – like weak or missing crop due to pests, hailstone, or not so perfect looking vegetables. This gives comfort to the producer and does not pressure him to produce “at all means”. We appreciate that the aim should be to provide “the ratatouille” in the summer and the “soup” in the winter.

The visit to the apple farm was also very interesting as it was the first and only fruit farm we visited. We found very interesting the practice of using the not so good apples for juice and for providing the AMAP consumers at a time when there are no fresh apples. Unfortunately again our legislation is not so liberal and does not allow the producers to have such preserving facilities to maximize the use of their products.

The last farm we visited was the beef farm of François’.  We were particularly impressed by the fact that he is helped by his daughter and son-in-law who recently decided to escape the stressful and not enough meaningful jobs in Paris for what seems to be a more fulfilling job at the farm. In general, it seems the profession of farmers is respected and children are encouraged to follow their parents into it. Unfortunately in our own country a lot needs to be done in this respect, as the number of young people in farms including the organic ones is very, very small – it is not considered a good profession to follow.

In the evening, we finally saw how the filling of baskets works in practice. It was really exciting to see all these people, most of them young, coming with their children and talking friendly to the producers and with each other. We talked with them and they told us how good and important a role AMAP plays in their lives. It was clear that these weekly and monthly meetings are the most important factor for building relations between the members of the AMAP. In Bulgaria, this is more difficult for us because of the distance of 200 km. But we still need to find a way to do it.

It was lovely that part of the people of the AMAP stayed for dinner with us. Again everybody had brought tasty home-prepared dishes. Both Tania and Lalka grew up in small villages . They spent time recalling similar gatherings of friends and neighbors, usually for religious purpose. Nowadays these traditions are disappearing. It was very inspiring to see that they can be restored with the help of organization similar to AMAP.

Day Four - Visit to the poultry farm and to the vegetable farm. Distribution at the AMAP of the Water Drop

Day four was also full with interesting and educational visits. First we visited a poultry farm at Alain Chazerault’s. We were amazed to find that previously Alain C. was producing only industrially grown chicken. Despite increasing loads of work, his profits were then very low. After he started growing organic chicken, ducks, grouses, he is better financially as his profit for one organic chicken equals the profit from 40 industrially grown ones! At the same time people are buying his chicken at prices that are not so much higher than in the shops. This shows very well what a big proportion of the money of the consumers goes for the middle men and what great sense there is in the AMAP schemes, as they eliminate the need for middle men.

After a nice lunch in a “cave” next to Vincent’s home (part of dwellings of people from XVIth century, cut in the lime rock) we visited his garden where he is growing more than 70 types of vegetables. The tomatoes already were already of 25 different types! Surely the people from the AMAP he supplies cannot complain about monoculture! And this is another advantage we discovered for AMAP schemes – when industrially grown, only 1-2 varieties of each type of vegetables are used. And they are chosen for characteristics suitable for mass grown monocultures like longer shelf life. Taste comes usually at last place when choosing the type. When growing for the AMAP, taste and variety are the criteria. This is so much to the benefit of the consumers!

Later in the afternoon, we managed to see how the distribution of organic products is done in the other AMAP – the AMAP of the Water Drop. Again we felt the atmosphere and we managed to talk to some of the consumers about the advantages of consuming within the AMAP schemes. After that, we headed again to Vincent’s place and discussed there with our hosts our conclusions from the trip. We shared the things we liked and considered applicable in Bulgaria, and also these which could not be applied directly. We received assurance that we can always get help and advice from our French friends.

The evening was the last evening of our trip and our hosts made it really memorable. We gathered again in the “cave” at Vincent’s home and the dinner was really big and rich. It coincided with the birthday at Vincent’s wife. At some point, Vincent took his bagpipe and played “Happy Birthday”. He also played other tunes and this was really a magical moment.  In the “cave”, with the fire in the fireplace, with so many friendly faces around us and this wonderful music… It is an evening all three of us will remember forever.

Day Five – Sightseeing in Angers and departure

During our last day we were taken for sightseeing by our lovely hosts Francine, Vincent and Jocelyn. We went by the castle of prince René, visited the impressive cathedral, walked around the historic center of the town. At the end, we were taken to the rail station and departed from there. We were sad that such a wonderful trip of ours had come to its end. With certainty Angers Region and its AMAP people will be occupying a special place in our heart!