So, I do not know you today,
but me today, I love my life!
He’s nice, this jingle, huh? To have fishing!
So you’re all looking for ways to change the world.
You came for that today.
I have no miracle cure, no magic wand.
I would like to press a button and stop
all the subjects that pollute us a lot,
that is, global warming, wars, those things.
By cons what I have to say to you today,
it could change your life.
And not only yours.
For that, I came to talk to you about your closet.
So what is a closet?
A closet is something where you store what you eat,
where we put the clothes we wear.
A cupboard, it can also be a place where we hide things,
where we put secrets.
You can even have a lover, sometimes, in a closet.
A closet is all that,
but a closet is bigger than that.
Because in a closet, in fact, there is hope.
Hope to take back your power.
Your power to you, the hope to act, the hope of a new life.
And as I’m sure in one of your closets,
you have shoes,
we will start with a small film that was produced by an NGO
which is called Sudwind in Austria,
and I propose that we look at this together.
(Music)
[You should not have to go to the other side of the world
to find out the truth about your shoes.]
(Applause)
We are talking about shoes but we could talk
many other products, you’ve seen videos like that.
What I propose to you now,
it is to feel a little what this type of message creates in you.
In general, there are four types of reactions
inside us facing this type of message.
The first reaction is a denial reaction:
I see this film, I think about it and then I forget.
The second reaction is a guilt reaction:
you still have discomfort
to see what is happening at the other end of the lace,
but that will not necessarily create a change in you.
So that’s guilt.
The third possible reaction is anger:
we hear people who often say:
“We are caught in a system, we can not do anything. “
The fourth reaction,
it’s a reaction of change: you see this film, and you say to yourself:
“The next time I buy shoes, it’s going to be different. “
Denial, anger, guilt, we will find about 85% of people
and we will find 15% of the people who are in the change part.
What makes us pass from these denial reactions,
Guilt, anger, change?
These are not superheroes, the 15%,
they do not have a magic wand either.
In fact, these people are people who have generally lived in them
a break, more or less serious.
And in fact, what I’m going to tell you today,
it’s my break with me, the way I lived it,
hoping that when I go to tell you my story,
it may be creating a kind of break in you
who will push you to make a change.
My change to me, he started following the shoelace, let’s say.
I went to the end, I made trips,
in India, Africa, the Maghreb,
and sometimes, I made trips right next to us in France.
It was always the same story:
Twenty years ago, I consumed ready-made products,
I gave it to my children, a lot:
small, they ate trays with small ears …
In fact, I had a working girl life, I thought:
“I do not have time to do anything except go to the hypermarket
at my gym, possibly, etc.
Twenty years ago, I came from marketing, I did not have questions at all.
For me, everything was practical,
it was new, it was fun, so I used it quietly.
And then ten years ago, I started to integrate committed projects
like the organization of eco-citizen discoveries, a show.
There I met people who told me about social responsibility,
responsibility for the environment.
They told me about bio, but for me,
it was a little hippie style, lifestyle that did not fit me too much.
At my first visit to an organic store, it did not give me much desire.
I thought people looked bad.
So suddenly, I decided that in fact,
I was going to inquire a little more.
One day, I was told: “The bio is simple,
it’s just that you do not put chemistry to cultivate or raise,
or very little in some countries.
So inevitably, it’s already taken for your health. “
There I started to join the bio.
And then seven years ago, I joined a society that creates
Fair trade in tea, spices, other products that come from afar
and of which we do not know anything eventually.
There, the break began to be created in me.
I traveled a lot, I went to see producers.
I was going to see suppliers,
those who create the products.
On the other side, I was talking to buyers.
buyers of hypermarkets,
restaurant buyers,
buyers of wholesalers, manufacturers,
I met all those people.
And here I started to lose my bearings.
I could not ignore
that hypermarkets are pushing manufacturers to the price level
whether they die, or they do anything.
They do not want to,
it’s just the price that presses them too much.
On the other hand, there were brands, known, that we use a lot,
these brands exploit people.
I could not stand the idea anymore
that when I gave my children cakes to eat,
we were helping to destroy Indonesia’s primary forest matrix.
It’s the matrix that was at stake,
not the secondary forest that was being destroyed,
it was the matrix of the primary forest
and a matrix, it does not rebuild.
All that was information,
I had a lot of shocking information.
All these things, I had the impression that every time
that I was going to consume a product of this type,
I was going to have a scam behind; it became complicated.
Only when you lose your bearings,
there is always this phase where we do not know what to do.
The weather, I did not have it, like everyone else, we do not have the time,
Western disease, we never have time.
So, in fact, the weather
I did not have it to go elsewhere than in the hypermarkets,
and money,
I said to myself, “The bio or the direct purchase, it is expensive, I can not do that! “
And finally,
I started by eliminating some products.
I eliminated everything that was a little extra, soft drinks, snacks,
all the stuff I saw in the factory, simply.
I saw the raw materials and said to myself, “Wow,
it’s hot, anyway, what we eat, there! “
I eliminated that, only the problem is family resistance,
because I had seen in the factories, but my children,
they did not care: cakes with knights,
the thing that was the hardest to eliminate from my kitchen, from my closet.
I knew how it was made, but they did not know it.
So I found another method:
at first I talked to them, then afterwards I noticed
that the best thing was to offer them something else.
And that’s how I did it.
I made this change little by little.
Buy pasta in Italy directly,
it also allowed me to go for a walk in Italy,
I bought rice in the Camargue,
tomato sauces to people who were careful
to what they put in,
I bought juice by 24, to the vine peach, very very good,
I bought flour directly at a mill,
and I made my choices alone.
In fact, I wanted to learn what these products were
because by making direct purchases, something important,
is that, one, you know who you buy it from, it’s pretty cool,
now I’m friends with all the producers,
and all the products that I consume, behind, there is a face;
and the second thing is knowing how products are made.
I do not know if you are an expert on chick peas
but I had never seen in culture for example,
so I started to train myself.
That’s how little by little the change was made.
Examples of shocking things, I could give you tens
but my goal is really not to create stress in you,
my goal is to show that it can be done.
I totally deserted hypermarkets,
it took seven years.
But now I’m really happy because every purchase I make,
there is a face behind, and there is an impact.
That is to say that I took back my power, I did my job,
after that, when in fact I discovered
that it is a real pleasure to have an impact on people’s lives.
So I created a place of discovery
to tell the story of many products.
I also created a film last year
with a professional videographer. This film is called “Seeds of Hope”.
Because the goal is really to find his hope.
In your closet, there is all that.
Its very important.
What I learned,
it is that change is done little by little.
We always tend to want to create a change in two seconds.
We would already like to go from “I do all my shopping at the hypermarket”
to “I’m not racing anymore, I’m boycotting a lot of brands”.
But it took me seven years, it takes a lot of time.
There is no point in putting pressure on you.
One thing after another and everything is fine!
Often, when there is a problem, there is a tendency
to make a mountain of the problem
while finally trying is simple.
I assure you, you have to try.
I’m often told, “You give me your list of producers,
like that I’m going to do my home market. “
But no, it’s stupid
because the olive oil that I buy,
maybe you do not like it!
Maybe the guy who produces it, for you it is less friendly,
it will not become a friend while I became a friend.
So do this way yourself!
Life is simple, we always tend to complicate it.
Things are super simple,
there are not fifty products that are consumed, it is quick.
If you look at the list of main products,
we can find many in France.
Every action I make has an impact on people’s lives.
That’s the impact, that’s important.
We always have the impression that to change, you have to vote.
It’s a way to change, that’s for sure!
But the impact we have when we do our shopping, you do not even have idea!
When we buy something,
there are really lives of people at stake.
I lived it all the time
in the spice industries in which I work,
in the pepper industry, I can tell you that a gesture of purchase
is really a signature at the bottom of a contract.
It’s super important.
Resist is good for morale.
It would not tell you to regain your power and not to suffer?
We are not doing everything well, I am not a specialist of everything good.
I consume pretty rotten stuff actually.
I know it, but the difference,
it is that before I suffered,
while now, I choose my imperfections.
And that’s very different.
I always say to my daughters: “To dare, at worst, it could work. “
I think it’s really a reflex that must be done,
we try, if it does not work, we go back, it does not matter.
Freedom is what I wanted to tell you is that really act,
it’s regaining one’s freedom, one’s power, feeling strong in fact.
Change is good for morale.
In any case, what I wanted to tell you is that I do not do everything right,
but I am very happy.
I love my life, as Florence Foresti would say, once again,
because in fact, I think the world is changing.
I am rather optimistic by nature but I really feel it.
I feel that if we are all here today, it is that change is on the way
and that we all want, it is only to see your heads,
we all want, really!
What I hope, right, is that tonight, on your way home,
when you go open one of your closets,
you will look at it otherwise.
I really hope that this closet now for you will be
a hope for change.
Thank you. (Applause)
”
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