• Coming from a line of market gardeners settled in Gonesse for several decades, Marie Proix, 28, grew up on land which is now increasingly rare in the region.

  • 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.

  • Despite multiple expropriations and the permanent threat of increasingly significant urbanization, Marie Proix did not hesitate to follow in her father's footsteps, even if “you don't necessarily feel welcome when you are a farmer”.

On the one hand, the smell of asphalt heated by the incessant passages of heavy goods vehicles which have come to supply the department stores in the Cressonnières business park.

On the other, that of the aromas of fruits and vegetables lovingly cultivated by a few market gardeners.

A little further, 280 hectares of agricultural land declared "zone to be defended" by a handful of militants hoping to safeguard the vestiges of an agriculture in need of space.

In Gonesse, a small town of 26,000 inhabitants located just over 15 kilometers from Paris, in the Val d'Oise, schizophrenia seems permanent.

In fifteen years, the numerous and imposing shop windows of clothing, DIY and other everyday equipment shops have replaced the farms of invited market gardeners, by means of expropriation, to relocate. “I was back in 6th year when my grandparents were expropriated from the estate they occupied and cultivated,” recalls Marie Proix. Coming from a line of market gardeners settled in Gonesse for several decades, the young woman, now aged 28, grew up on land now occupied by the overcrowded shelves of Leroy Merlin.

# Zad-Sunday 4/4, 11am to save 280ha of fertile land 15km from Paris, threatened by the ZAC Triangle de #Gonesse, with its lost station without inhabitant within 1.7km.


Destruction of green lungs seriously harms #health #artificializationhttps: //t.co/qgZvruttTf pic.twitter.com/FXN5bNXvjI

- Collectif Pour le Triangle de Gonesse (@CPTGonesse) April 2, 2021

Cultivate the cultivation of family lands

“The expropriation, which had been pending for almost 17 years, finally came about when my grandmother decided to stop. So my father, who worked alongside him, had to think about doing otherwise, ”she says. At the time, his father, Jacques, cultivated thyme a little further in Gonesse, on his family's historic lands. He then decides to settle there for good and to continue cultivating aromatic herbs, while keeping a small corner for the family vegetable garden.

For her part, Marie, far from projecting herself as a market gardener in her father's lineage, chose to move away from Gonesse to continue her studies.

Far from imagining that, a few years later, she would find her way back to the family farm.

“Basically, I didn't want to work in the agricultural sector at all.

I really wanted to leave Gonesse and settle in Paris, to work in communication.

But after my diploma, and while I had signed a CDI, I realized that it did not correspond at all to what I had imagined ”, she recalls.

So one night of blues, she calls her father, tears in her voice, and tells him that she wants to stop everything.

"Come on, quit, we're going to relaunch the vegetables"

“I knew he wanted to restart the production of vegetables that he had to stop after the expropriation. But he was approaching retirement age, and he didn't necessarily want to sell his farm to developers. So, when I called him in tears, he said “come on, quit, we are going to revive the vegetables together”. I thought about it for a few days, and then I said go! ". Since then, repatriated to 1.25 hectares located a few kilometers behind the Cressonnières business park, the vegetables have been spread out happily on a land in full organic conversion, for a little over a year.

“We are on the concept of an intensive organic micro-farm. We try to do very good, whether it is for the earth or for the health of people. The idea is also to try to recreate the link between the producers, the peasants, and the population. And in Gonesse, we are a bit of a pioneer, because not many of us do that in the region, ”says Marie. Because the Proix family continues to preach the benefits of respectful agriculture, resisting the crisis as best they can. That of the intensive urbanization of the town and the systematic artificialization of its soils, but also that of the rise in unemployment and poverty in the surrounding households. “Here, organic can scare and slow people down, because it is more expensive. But we try to get them used to the right price, the one that represents the value of our work, ”she explains.A tactic which, the young woman hopes, will make it possible to refocus the debate on the importance of the quality of the products consumed, and to make Gonessiens and Gonessiennes aware of peasant know-how.

From ecological crisis to political struggle

“When you are a market gardener, you are necessarily an activist.

Deeply even.

And all the more so when you're in Gonesse, where you don't necessarily feel welcome when you're a farmer, ”says Marie.

And for good reason: 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.

So, each plot is a nugget that everyone is snapping up. This is evidenced by the fight that is still 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 highly coveted by its owner, Grand Paris Aménagement, which is now continuing the project to build a station with a business district. To the detriment of the farmers who, in spite of everything, continue to cultivate this fertile land, far from being fallow, but strategically located between the airports of Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle and Le Bourget.

“My father, he felt hyper marginalized for a long time because he had a lifestyle that did not correspond at all with the evolution of our society.

And to see Gonesse like that, today, I think it makes him a little sad, ”concludes Marie.

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