In a context in which agriculture and eating seem increasingly separate from both the social and natural environment, we are witnessing the emergence of several social action projects, such as agriculture supported by the community, community gardens and some types of agro-food cooperatives. Could such projects have an educational potential to strengthen relationships between people, the society and the “agri-cultural” environment?

The research presented describes the educational dimension of the co-operative’s solidarity activities in agriculture and identifies the issues. The article first takes a look at how LaMauve members see the socio-ecological problem in agriculture and how they develop an individual and collective action through their cooperative. Secondly, it examines the informal learning that comes out of interactions between co-op members. Thirdly, it describes the cooperative’s educational action.

This research showed that the learning processes taking place at La Mauve cooperative enrich the knowledge of the people involved, and increase their power for individual and collective action. However, we notice that the educational potential
of La Mauve is limited by a cognitive conflict (what is education?) and a conflict in values (what is the importance of education?) among the members, a lack of planning for educational intervention, and limited recognition of the learning process that develops out of social action.