National Federation of Organic Agriculture (Fédération Nationale d’Agriculture Biologique – FNAB)

A kind of labour union, we represent member organic farmers and defend their interests politically, and make sure that organic farming develops and spreads in France.

Key words: organic, policy making, bottom-up, collective thinking, federation

Short description

Name of the initiative? National Federation of Organic Agriculture (Fédération Nationale d’Agriculture Biologique – FNAB)

Country France

Region countrywide

What kind of initiative Farming/production, environment, landscape, biodiversity, community, policy making

The Story

It started 40 years ago as a necessity to have one voice for all the organic farmers and to speak louder than if every organic farmer had to speak for themselves. Different local groups had emerged or were created in different parts of France. They were talking to each other and sharing ideas and practices and realised that there were things they wanted to address and promote collectively. Step by step the different local organisations made connections, and the FNAB was formed.

“It started 40 years ago as a necessity to have one voice for all the organic farmers and to speak louder than if every organic farmer had to speak for themselves.”

Organic farmers are members of units at the very local department level. Departments are members of the regional level, and the regions are members of FNAB in Paris. Membership is by yearly subscription.

“The local departments rule our national organisation so the decision and strategy are based on collective thinking from all around the country.”

The local departments rule our national organisation so the decision and strategy are based on collective thinking from all around the country. We are trying to create it from the bottom to the top. Our organisation is designed so that we are constantly in touch with local groups. Every two months farmers from different regions come to Paris to discuss the next moves and design the strategy. We can really have a feeling and a sense of what organic farmers need locally everywhere in France. Even within a small country there are very different situations for organic farmers and farmers generally, say the south of France compared to the north of France. Because we very much engage at the local level, I think our model could be adapted for other countries.

“It’s always more complicated to have a decision when it’s bottom up rather than top down. You have to feel the consensus and find a place where no one is really unhappy about the overall thinking.”

It’s always more complicated to have a decision when it’s bottom up rather than top down. You have to feel the consensus and find a place where no one is really unhappy about the overall thinking. Working for FNAB nationally I can’t just say ‘let’s work on that project’ because I have no power over the farmers. If they want to go in a certain direction, I can help them work together and formalise the work and coordinate the different ideas. I’m a facilitator rather than a director.

We communicate through regular face to face meetings with emails in between to take decisions together. There is a meeting that everyone is invited to once a year. Every two months chief farmers of a region gather to think about the national strategy. Every three months there are working groups around certain thematics, like organic products in collective catering. Every two months the regions and departments hold meetings to find their own strategy.

Additional information

https://www.fnab.org/

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Repository compiled June 2020 by: Julian Renard

E-mail contact: jrenard@fnab.org