The municipality is also studying possibilities to provide affordable housing and access to farm buildings for new farmers. The town implemented a new land zoning plan, nearly tripling the surface of land reserved for agriculture (from 40 ha to 112 ha), and voted to help organic new entrants establish on that land by subsidising up to 20% of their start up investments (up to €12,000). The municipal policy has also grown into a more global programme articulated around five pillars: cultivating, processing, educating, researching, and disseminating. By 2016, and with the purchase of an additional two hectares, the farm covered 90% of the cafeterias’ vegetable needs with local and organic products. The town hired a first salaried grower (and up to 3 growers in 2020) and ramped up production through investing in agricultural material (greenhouses, a tractor, irrigation, a cold room, etc.). Starting in 2011, the estate was gradually converted into a municipal vegetable growing farm with the goal of producing food for the town’s school cafeterias. In 2005, the Mouans-Sartoux municipal council pre-empted a 4 hectares agricultural domain to prevent its purchase by a real estate developer and develop a stock of agricultural land for public purposes.
Located on the attractive French Riviera coast, the town of Mouans-Sartoux faces skyrocketing land prices due to competitive demands for urban and touristic development and declining local agriculture and food production.
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