We came from all corners of Europe to determine collectively how rural communities can harness the tools of participative democracy to take their future into their hands.
Since 2020 the rural municipality of Plessé in the west of France has been conducting an experiment in participative democracy with its Local Food and Agricultural Policy (PAAC). It is here that we congregated on the last weekend in November, together with participants from 12 European countries and beyond, for our Rural Resilience Gathering 2025.
Issued from diverse life journeys, farmers, educators, cooks, artists, researchers, seed artisans and rural actors came together to learn and unlearn, to share and exchange, to break bread, to dance, and to collectively envision a resilient future for our rural areas.
We took home new perspectives, tools and best practices, a richer vision of the mosaic of rural Europe – and a full tank of hope: that we can shape our agroecological future in our communities. Report by Louise Kelleher and Pauline Petit.
“Thank you for the magic.”
These were the words that independent researcher for ecology and the arts Sina Ribak concluded the gathering with. For when rural actors from all over Europe meet in a room and find solidarity and common cause, it is indeed a kind of magic. It opens up possibilities. What we can learn from each other. What we can do together. Because we are not alone. We are not powerless. Power-full work is being done by communities on the ground in Europe’s territories. This gives us a collective strength. And it gives us hope.
Caravan of hope
This sense of hope and possibility is a common thread of the annual Rural Resilience Gathering. Since the inaugural edition held in 2022 here in Plessé –a municipality whose citizens have taken their future into their own hands– ARC2020 and friends have steered a caravan.
Eastwards to Marburg, Germany in 2023 where, after the EU abandoned its Sustainable Food Systems law, we found reasons for hope in the potential for change at local and regional level, which inspired a collective call to action: the Marburg Action Plan for Future-Proof Food Systems in Europe.
In 2024, a year of divisions and polarisation for Europe’s farmers, we gathered around the theme of Weaving Common Ground in Grzybów, Poland –thus completing a Weimar triangle of rural changemakers. Grzybów’s Ecological Folk High School is a place to learn by doing, with head, heart and hands, where the roles of student and teacher are fluid and reversible. It makes space for the magic that can happen when farmers find common ground in their struggles, joys and successes.
One of many proposals and commitments that came out of that gathering was the concept of a Farm Erasmus: a tool to harness that magic of trans-local peer-to-peer learning. This in turn helped to seed the idea for a “université paysanne” in Plessé.
And so the caravan this year came home to Plessé to help that seed to sprout. For as we imagine together a future for our rural areas, we also imagine the shape of a European peasant university, rooted in place, with bridges to other European territories.
Carrots and carrots
What would be on the curriculum of a peasant university? At the Rural Resilience Gathering 2025, during field trips and workshops, we explored and exchanged on a number of building blocks.
Access to land is the first prerequisite for any farmer. Not just as a site of production, but for a sense of purpose and right relationship: small farmers are custodians of the land and water. The EU understands the challenge of access to land for farmers, but is slow to act. How to secure access to land for agroecology and the commons? We discussed tools that are available for collective governance at local and regional level, from “protected perimeters” overseen by a regional steering committee, to guidelines for leasing land. Decision making on land use must rest in the community.
Water quality can be a lever for good agricultural practices; case studies demonstrate possibilities of cooperation with industrial actors. Also in terms of developing local supply chains, protecting landscapes can be a space to work together with decision makers and build the political vision that is needed.
But where can small farmers sell their products, when they are too small and too good for supermarkets?
Here in Plessé, the municipality offers alternative avenues for local farmers: a Sunday market, a local grocery store, and the school canteen. As we learned during a field trip, the canteen has been directly managed by the municipality since 2023. It’s an experiment in ultra-local public procurement. For each item to be procured, the cook gives precedence to Plessé’s farmers. The producer sets the price.
As needed the canteen will even absorb a farmer’s surplus (of carrots for example), adapting that week’s menu accordingly. The kitchen can process whole chickens, and mucky vegetables fresh from the field, because the municipality has invested in the necessary equipment and staff. [Plessé’s school canteen is a fascinating example of what can be achieved when the political will is there –look out for a forthcoming article on this topic here on ARC in the New Year!]
Reality check on the ground
The local CUMA machinery cooperative, which we visited on another field trip, demonstrates what can be accomplished through the pooling of skills and time and equipment: not just state-of-the-art ag tech, but mutual aid and community building. Without these kinds of robust relationships between local actors –without a supportive community– it is difficult to maintain local supply chains. Many European participants were keen to take home the CUMA model, including the Polish delegation of women farmers who will now scope out possibilities to adapt the concept to their local context in Poland.
We identified the gaps in the EU’s new strategy on generational renewal in agriculture –for example the lack of concrete proposals to encourage women in farming– and looked to voices from the ground for proposals.
During a visit to Ferme de Lancé, a dairy farm cooperative that makes delicious organic camembert, young farmer Rachel made a salient point as she showed us the heifers happily grazing in the pasture: because the cows are outside all year round, and they only milk once a day, it’s a relatively easy farm to run, and as such a good showcase for new entrants who can see that farming doesn’t have to be such hard work.
At La Ferme des 7 chemins, another dairy farm cooperative that has recently diversified into vegetable growing, the work is shared between seven farmers and one farm worker to ensure good quality of life for all –including the Bretonne Pie Noir cows, who can bathe in their very own swimming pool!
It is thanks to good cooperation between this farm and another university –Université des sciences et pratiques gastronomiques (USPG)– that we ate so well at the Rural Resilience Gathering 2025. Just as the municipality of Plessé puts the emphasis on “participating in democracy”, USPG believes that a university is something we do, collectively, in our fields and kitchens.
In keeping with this spirit, to feed the hungry participants of the Gathering, the USPG cooks selected local, seasonal and ethically produced ingredients, many of which were supplied by 7 chemins farm, and all of which were deliciously and thoughtfully prepared, and served up with pride. Each meal was a rich homage to diversity –of food, agricultural practices and people– and a taste of alternatives to systems of dominance.
Because to change these systems, we must use our collective power to confront them, to “rub them up the wrong way”. But we must also know how to offer delicious alternatives, with open doors and hearts and a celebratory narrative that makes room for all.
As we were reminded once again at this Gathering in so many wonderful ways, small actions at local level can snowball into a big political impact, especially when they connect with sister actions in other territories. This is the power of the trans-local.
We can learn so much from another cornerstone of the curriculum: seeds. A tiny seed is the root of life. Currently under threat of corporate capture at European level, seeds can show us the political path to take: one of diversity, community and rich ecosystems, rooted in fertile ground that allows each living creature to thrive. As an integral part of the critical infrastructure that is needed to build rural resilience, seeds can teach us so much. As farmer Tijs Boelens concluded this session: “Your little cows (and seeds) tell big stories.”
Cross-pollination and consolidation
In our parting words, we spoke of community in the trans-local sense, of projects coming together as a motor for rural development.
When individual commitment meets shared purpose, something powerful happens. We come together. We protect that collective energy—and turn it into action. This is why organizations that choose to operate as communities matter. They don’t just gather people; they amplify ambition, channel energy, and expand what becomes possible. A “cross-pollination of networks” is important because nothing happens without funding. We must use our networks to make sure they survive the next CAP round. We must consolidate our networks, and be prepared for the next political window that opens.
We agreed that the caravan must continue, in one form or another, building bridges and carrying the cultural wealth of different countries.
If we are to change the narrative around farming and rural areas, we must keep creating spaces for dialogue – places and moments to gather, learn, share, celebrate and enjoy what we build together. A (European) Peasant –or Rural– University could be one of the tools to help us to prepare the ground for what comes next.
Meanwhile we rural actors will continue to nurture and grow our collective knowledge and power, one small local action or one trans-local bridge at a time. When the next window of political opportunity opens, we will be ready to seize it with head, heart and hands.
The Rural Resilience Gathering 2025, organised by ARC2020 in collaboration with the municipality of Plessé, the Seeds4All project, the ARBALA association, Chambre d’agriculture Pays de la Loire, des Enfants et des Arbres association, and the Ecological Folk High School, took place in cooperation with Porticus and the Paris office of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung.
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