If man has always practiced food barter, this form of trade had a priori disappeared from our habits, but on the line of the economy of sharing, barter on everything and shared food, the Food Swap is making a strong comeback in several countries.
This practice is booming in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States: pioneering countries in terms of collaborative consumption, "edible cities", new food deals ... The first adepts to have relaunched barter are from Brooklyn, and now there are 125 groups that exist and propagate this mode of trade.
This food barter is the result of a combination of several factors: consumers' fears of the food industry, the boom in the sharing economy, and local, "home-made" trends. In the framework of this barter, vegetables from the garden are exchanged for home-made pastries, eggs from farm hens for sushi, and so on.
The swappers organize their meetings with the Food Swap Network website. Each event brings together an average of 40 participants. No money transactions, food for food, and nothing else.
In fact this is what many people do informally and spontaneously between neighbours. The site trocalimentaire.com offers this type of service on the internet. For example, at the moment in Paris we can exchange home-made jams or tea samples. And this affects all areas including the garden: I love the idea of exchanging plants, green ideas!
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Note that the Food Swap helps to limit waste, save money and bring people together around food. If you want to "taste" this small business of hyper proximity and conviviality, there is a group in France listed on the site Food Swap Network. In fact, it is the only group in France located in Jonzac in Charente Maritime... When will the other regions and Paris join us?
Maryline Passini, Blog Proâme - May 2013
