Context
Convinced that cities can be more peaceful and nurturing, the association Cultivons Nos Toits relies on a participative approach to design productive and aesthetic spaces for more sustainable projects and in harmony with nature.
Project
The Cultivons Nos Toits association was created in 2011. It cultivates the vast field of urban agriculture by developing participatory vegetable gardening and vegetable production projects on the rooftops of the Grenoble area. It is part of the social and solidarity economy, and offers a technically innovative approach to culture in a constrained environment (roofs of town buildings, brownfields).
Cultivons Nos Toits exists to meet 3 main needs:
- food / health: a healthy mind in a healthy body, but only if you feed them healthy food!
- environment: water retention, lower temperatures, CO2 absorption
- well-being: relaxation, satisfaction and self-esteem
For this, the association acts in 3 areas:
- awareness raising to get the message across (workshops / forums / courses, communication on social networks)
- support in order to design better to last (definition of the model, training / activities, social support)
- innovation to stay one step ahead (innovative experiments and production methods).
They also set themselves the task of organizing and participating in events related to food and food self-sufficiency (such as the 48 hours of urban agriculture for example), setting up projects / surveys / diagnoses / training / activities.
Means
Cultivons Nos Toits is part of the Collectif Autonomie Alimentaire sur le Territoire, a collective to stimulate and relay local actions for a healthy diet that is accessible to all, "from seed to plate" combining urban, peri-urban and rural environments across the metropolis of Grenoble. Made up of individuals and professional structures, the association is collectively committed to the issue of food self-sufficiency in our territory.
Goals
- support initiatives creating the conditions for the production and consumption of quality food products from agroecological practices
- support decision-makers who need additional resources and skills to decide and act,
- make food self-sufficiency a priority in the region - a goal to which many players are already committed.
The partners
Cultivons Nos Toits is supported by CapBerriat, CFPPA (landscape school), Agori, Le Mur Jardin, Mixture, Casemate, Ca Dépote, Entropie, Clara Chambon (graphic designer and illustrator), Natcre (craft company, that produces all types of recycled paper-based media), as well as by the City of Grenoble, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, Grenoble-Alpes Métropole, Isère General Council, Nature and Discovery, Ekibio, the Nicolas Hulot Foundation for Nature and Man, and many others.
Implementation
The association "Cultivons Nos Toits" has started a process on the roof of the Casemate in Grenoble: cultivating a vegetable garden that can produce a ton of vegetables per year. The beginning, they hope, of a widespread culture on the roofs of the city of Isère.
Project leaders
The association is now led by Lucas, César, and Mickaël, all three coming from different backgrounds (environmental engineer, master in strategic challenges and project management, professional degree in agronomy), but with the same desire: to improve and green the cities by growing on rooftops.
This project was initiated by Co2mpost, Jardins Vivants, Nicole Caillot, Monique Dallet, Florence Ghestem, Thierry Lemonnier and Brigitte Neyton.
The Little Extra
The association often launches calls for volunteers to help them on participatory projects.
Written by Clémence Guignard, LFC volunteer - May 2019.
Last modification : 13 May 2020.
Let’s cultivate our roofs
An association sowing the vast field of urban agriculture in the Grenoble region and working around participatory and innovative projects.