Réseau Cocagne (France)

Starting from the first garden opened in 1991 by Jean-Guy Henckel at Chalezeule near Besançon, France, the model of jardins d'insertion — organic market gardens that employ unemployed and precariously placed people — spread across the country, and the national network was formally constituted on 13 July 1999. The vegetables produced are delivered as weekly baskets to subscriber members, and the workers receive socio-professional support alongside the farming. Its distinguishing feature is that one mechanism is asked to serve both city residents' food supply and people excluded from the labour market.

People in precarious situations are employed on social-integration contracts (contrats d'insertion) to grow organic vegetables while receiving individualised socio-professional support. Consumers take part as subscriber members receiving a weekly vegetable basket (panier); the network reported around 15,000 consumer members in 2009.

Combines revenue from subscription vegetable baskets with public funding as a work-integration enterprise (insertion par l'activité économique). In 2009 it absorbed Planète Sésame, a solidarity catering network.

The network scaled a combination of work integration, organic farming and local vegetable supply to national level, reaching 100 gardens and 3,000 people on integration contracts in 2009, and 130 gardens with 4,320 people on integration contracts, 815 permanent staff and over 550 hectares in 2012. By 2018, however, the network counted 102 farms, down from 130 in 2012, so growth has not been continuous. The rate at which participants move into stable employment afterwards is not published in the source consulted, and neither that nor the durability of a business structure dependent on public funding can be verified from outside.

Web articles and features that cover this case.

• ArticleRéseau Cocagne — Wikipédia (français) ↗fr.wikipedia.org