The 23rd Economic Meeting of Aix-en-Provence took place on July 7th,8th and 9th, 2023. This year, the theme of the event was “Recreating hope” to “spur stakeholders into action and thus create conditions for economic, social and political renewal.” According to the organizers, “there is a convergence of economic, social, health, ecological and geostrategic crises that are difficult to grasp.”
Created in 2001 by the Cercle des économistes, the Economic Meetings bring together over 300 leading international academic, political, civil and economic speakers in Aix-en-Provence to debate the issues and challenges faced by our society, during 3 days of free, broadcast conferences. In 2022, the event attracted nearly 6,000 people in person and almost 500,000 remotely.
For the occasion, the director of Agence BIO, Laure Verdeau, emphasized “the need to educate and inform as many citizens and consumers as possible about organic food and agriculture.”
“For equal purchasing power, education is key”
“For equal purchasing power, education is key,” according to Laure Verdeau. In other words, the families that eat more than 75% of organic food have a food budget that is - at equivalent purchasing power - 12 points higher than a family that does not eat organic food. What explains this, if organic food is twice as expensive as conventional food? Because consumers of organic food have managed to balance quantity and quality. They do not use the same menu. Another factor is the shopping channel because in France, mass retail accounts for 80% of French purchases while with organic products, we have a greater diversity of distribution channels.”