The Olivades Farm in Ollioules

Denise and Daniel Vuillon manage the Olivades Farm in Ollioules in the Var. Their activity is linked to the development of the AMAP, the French association for community-supported agriculture, a principle that they introduced into France.

In 2000, while visiting their daughter doing an architecture internship in the United States, the market farming couple discovered the concept.

They presented it in France and delivered the first fruit and vegetable basket to customers in Aubagne (out of a total of 32).

Alliance Provence, founded in May 2001, is in charge of assisting the farmers in the region involved in the AMAP project. Sixteen of these community-supported farming associations have been created since 2002 and the concept has been spreading by word of mouth and thanks to the media.

In 2003, the founders of the Alliance Provence drew up the AMAP charter. The principles of this charter are the following:

- the guarantee of ethics in farming practices and social and civic ethics;

- produce that tastes good and is fresh, seasonal and grown without pesticides, weed-killers or chemical or synthetic fertilizers.

In 2012, more than 1,600 AMAP supplied fruit and vegetables to 50,000 families in France, or about 200,000 people.