FoodNavigator spoke to Oliver Verdelet, Vice President of Procurement (CPO) Europe at Danone, concerning the firm’s regenerative agriculture programmes with dairy farmers. Verdelet is in cost not solely of milk procurement however of regulatory practices as effectively.
Working in 20 nations with 58,000 farmers all over the world, Danone began utilizing regenerative agriculture in 2017. Danone’s regenerative agriculture, Verdelet instructed us, has three pillars: soil well being, animal welfare, and farmer livelihood.
The soil and the land is vital to Danone, which owns dairy manufacturers together with Activia, Oikos and Actimel. It takes “a really holistic strategy that basically consists of the ecosystem. We now have to incorporate ecosystem as a result of it is all about resilience.”
Agriculture accounts for 60% of Danone’s provide chain carbon footprint, and milk is 36% of this, so it’s important for greenhouse fuel (GHG) emissions to be diminished by regenerative agriculture.
“Every thing begins with herd and feed administration,” Verdelet instructed us, “and all the pieces begins with ensuring that the farm is environment friendly, that that is run with one of the best practices; by way of agriculture, by way of feed, by way of weight-reduction plan, by way of breed. In order that’s the massive image.”
Animal welfare is one other key a part of the programme. Animal welfare concerns can work hand in hand with bettering farmers’ livelihoods, Verdelet instructed us.
“Typically you might be in markets like in Morocco, when your first enchancment in tackling each animal welfare and productiveness is getting sufficient water for the cow to drink. That is such primary stuff, and it is a basic. And for those who do, you not solely you deal with the well being and welfare of the cow, however you enhance your yield. By bettering your yield you enhance the revenue of the farmer.”
Then comes GHG emissions discount. One of many primary sources of GHGs in agriculture is methane, however Danone makes use of methane inhibitors, decreasing the methane output of its dairy cows.
After different features resembling animal welfare have been addressed, “if you wish to enhance, you in all probability are going to have to make use of methane inhibitors,” Verdelet instructed us. Danone makes use of methane inhibitors in locations resembling Belgium.
Farmers beneath Danone’s regenerative agriculture programmes are assessed with a collection of scorecards.
“We now have carbon targets discount, communicated globally however cascading as effectively to the nations, cascading to my groups. We observe soil well being and carbon emission depth, so how a lot each litre of milk emits. So that is all tracked at nation stage.” There’s additionally a scorecard for animal welfare.
Altering agricultural practices
Danone operates regenerative agriculture in 20 nations, together with the US, Belgium and Morocco. Due to this, agricultural practices are completely different from place to put. In some locations, resembling Morocco, Danone should present help to the farmers to adapt to new practices.
“It is all about change administration,” Verdelet instructed us. “Some farmers have been doing issues in the identical method for many years. That is how they noticed their dad doing it. That is the place our farm relationship managers are essential to assist the farmer transition over time, as a result of it is actually a change of agricultural apply.”
Danone works with NGOs to provide an agricultural handbook, which helps present farmers with data on easy methods to carry out their practices most successfully.
