Agroecology: Back to the Future?
12 million. That's the approximate number of pumpkins that will be thrown away tomorrow as soon as we put away our lovely Halloween costumes 🎃. In France, 9,000 hectares are devoted to pumpkin cultivation.
As the scarcity of agricultural land becomes more pressing, and after the harvesting in our respective beautiful regions of Gascony and Savoie comes to an end, we've chosen to devote this month's "In-depth” section to the multiple challenges of this strategic sector.
Enjoy the read and thank you to all our new subscribers! Don't hesitate to send us your comments, remarks and suggestions.
In-depth💡- the agricultural transition: rethinking the paradigm?
Because it touches on essential issues that have a direct impact on us all (food safety, health, biodiversity, the economy, social issues, climate, energy), agriculture is often the subject of heated debate. A promising industry for some, a destructive one for others, it often seems difficult to reconcile perspectives on this topic.
Environmental impact : producing and offsetting emissions
Guillaume Fournidier (the author of the newsletter le Plongeoir, which we highly recommend reading) describes the coexistence of positive and negative externalities related to agriculture as a "double kiss cool effect".
Kiss Cool #1 💫: agricultural land accounts for almost 40% of the earth's surface and generates around 11% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide (1/4 of GHGs in France) through :
🔥 Methane (mainly from cattle farming)
🔥 Nitrogen (linked to soil bacteria following the application of fertilizers)
Kiss Cool # 2 💫: soils are one of the most powerful levers for carbon capture. Both uncultivated surfaces (fallow land, hedgerows, grassed strips, ponds etc.) and farmed land via production methods designed to restore the soil's capacity to capture CO2.
Social impact: less land to feed more people (and more cheaply!)
Agriculture faces a major challenge in fulfilling its role as a provider of food: between now and 2050, the world's population will grow from 8 billion to 10 billion. Just as many mouths to feed. 🍽️👪
This imperative comes up against 5 major evolutions:
🍽️ Shifting eating habits. In the space of just 50 years, our consumption of meat products, which require more intensive farming, has evolved considerably. While meat consumption has fallen slightly in France and Europe since the 1980s, it continues to explode worldwide.
💰Lower budgets. Thanks to increased agricultural yields, the share of household income devoted to food has fallen. In France, the budget that families devote to food has been divided by 2 since the 1960s.
🌱 Decrease in arable land: According to estimates, every second, 26m² of farmland disappear in France . The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations warned about this trend as early as in 2016: 1/3 of the world's arable land is at risk of disappearing due to urbanization and soil degradation1.
👨🌾 Less farmers and bigger landowners. The growth of the tertiary sector and the decline in the agricultural workforce are driving land consolidation and increasing farm size. It is estimated that 1% of the world's largest farms account for over 70% of agricultural land, with a significant impact on land access issues and the decline of biodiversity.
🌍 Climate change: Droughts and floods follow one another with a significant impact on yields.
🤔In this context, how do we respond to all of the above - sometimes contradictory- parameters?
Option 1: the headlong rush 🏃♂️💨
Some more drama in Brussels. In September 2023, the European Commission proposed to renew the authorization of glyphosate for another 10 years. This controversial decision has been postponed. A new vote will take place next month.
Overall, despite the ambitious reduction targets announced by France and the European Union2 , the use of pesticides in France and Europe is not decreasing.
Another recent -anecdotal and yet telling- event: this summer, the French Council of State overturned a decision dating back to 2019, which prohibited the out-of-season sale of tomatoes and other organic vegetables grown in greenhouses. A French tomato grown in a greenhouse produces 7 times more greenhouse gases than a seasonal tomato, and 4 times more than a tomato imported from Spain.
Option 2: go organic 🌱🛒
Many had placed high hopes in the rise of organic farming. Between 2016 and 2021 the surface area of organic land effectively doubled in France, making the Hexagon a European leader3.
However, since 2021 - consumption has plummeted, leading to a cascade of organic store closures. The figures are staggering: decline of 1.8% in 2021 and 8.6% in 2022. Take a look at the sales of organic products in France over the past 10 years:
Source : data from French State Agency Agence Bio
This decline is not only due to inflation. Admittedly, products are more expensive (an organic product costs on average 30% more than its conventional equivalent), but the decline had begun well before the war in Ukraine4. Other factors at stake included:
🌍🌿Boom in supply. Sensing the upward trend, French retailers rushed to buy up specialist organic chains and multiply the number of organic products in their stores5: in the end, supply outstripped demand6.
🌍🌿Organic = not always eco-friendly. Pierrick de Ronne, former president of renowned French organic chain Biocoop sums it up: "The industrialization of the sector has undermined confidence in the organic label, with ingredients that have travelled thousands of kilometres and products in plastic, or displaying an E nutriscore."
🌟🔍Mirages of labels and local. Two additional trends contributed to lower French consumers' interest in organic products :
✅ The multiplication of food labels caused some confusion. For example, the "Haute Valeur Environnementale" (HVE)7 label, actively promoted by certain retailers as a healthier, more economical alternative to organic products. In the end, by seeking to embark as many people as possible, the label is considered to have lost a lot of its substance. It tolerates unsustainable practices, including the use of carcinogenic pesticides. (In passing, these issues remind us of those concerning sustainable labels in other sectors).
✅ Local consumption - while shorter food circuits and support for local producers have a positive impact from an economic resilience and environmental standpoints, buying local does not necessarily implies a positive correlation for consumers’ health and biodiversity.
Facing a drastic decline of organic sales, some French farmers are seriously considering a return to conventional agriculture, although this is still a minority phenomenon.
Option 3: A new paradigm 🔄 🌳
👨🌾 Supporting the new generation of farmers
A number of excellent initiatives exist to democratize investment in land. Examples in France include Fermes en Vie (FEVE) and Hectare. Facilitating the transmission of land will also require major efforts in terms of financing, training and simplifying the sometimes ubiquitous administrative procedures.
🍽️ Adapting our diet
In the “Transformation Plan for the French Econonomy”, researchers from the Shift Project think tank, recommend reducing animal feed volumes in favour of quality and sustainability. The model recommends the following for France:
-Cutting milk and egg production by 1/3,
-Dividing the production of fishery products by 2,
-Cutting meat production by 3.
🌍 Adapting the geographic distribution of crops
As agro-climatologist Serge Zaka explains: "With climate change (...) the northernmost regions of the world will discover new crops and higher yields. Conversely, in the south, some crops will lose their potential. The question is: who will take over? Spain can no longer be the orchard of Europe as it is today. States have an essential role to play in reorganizing the industry.”8
🌾 Diversifying farming practices
By promoting practices such as agroforestry, frequent crop rotation and variety diversification, agroecology seeks to establish a balance between agricultural production, environmental preservation and the resilience of local economies.
Unrealistic utopia, some would object. Not so sure.... Since 2013, the Fondation de France has supported 324 promising projects linked to the agroecological transition. Even non-obvious candidates such as Mac Donald's (you read that right!) are taking a close interest, with several related projects in France.
Admittedly, challenges remain, not least the possible reduction in yields, but agroecology offers an interesting systemic approach in an attempt to federate stakeholders and reconcile the imperatives of nutrition, health, the environment and the economy.🌎🌾
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From knowledge to action 🙋♂️-
Food: 5 tips to reconcile our plates with the planet
...without losing sight of our health!
🍌Local, organic or seasonal, which is most important?
In terms of CO₂ emissions, the most important factor is seasonality - fruit and vegetables grown out of season require heating, with a negative impact on climate. What's more, greenhouse crops often have less taste and nutrients (vitamins etc.).
The second factor contributing to CO₂ (far behind the 1st) is "locality" : favour short circuits to reduce the impact of transport, but also for nutritional quality (the fresher it is, the more vitamins it contains).
Third criterion: choose organic products. The positive impact of these products on the climate may vary greatly depending on the farming methods used. However, it is positive for the health of soils, farmers and consumers alike.
To sum up, the first thing to do for the climate is to eat as much as possible in season, then avoid products that have been transported by plane (the vast majority of frozen vegetables9, but also fresh and dried fruit and vegetables ). For health and overall balance, choose organic!
🥬Is organic really worth the money?
Organic food is on average 20-30% more expensive than conventional, and the emissions saved by the absence of chemical fertilizers are often made up elsewhere, due to lower yields. However, there are many benefits for the environment, employment, biodiversity and, above all, health. The European (eurofeuille) and AB (French Ministry of Agriculture) labels offer broadly the same guarantees, and both refer to the same EU specifications. Among the key points: synthetic chemicals and GMOs are banned; crop rotation is compulsory; stocking density is limited; and for processed products, only natural additives and 54 others are authorized (compared with over 300 in conventional farming). On the other hand, non-European organic farming has been the subject of much controversy (less stringent specifications, lack of controls and fraud).
Pesticide residues in fruit, vegetables and cereals, synthetic additives, and the hormones and antibiotics present in organic milk and meat are all disrupters of both our endocrine glands and our intestinal flora, the guardians of our immunity and cardiovascular health.
🐮Environmentalists criticize meat...but if it comes from the local farmer, it's okay, isn't it?
In a previous issue of this newsletter, we pointed out that 1kg of beef = 15,000 liters of water - one of the most impactful foods in our diets. Even if you see your cattle grazing, remember that in France around 10% of their feed consists of soybean meal, often imported from Latin America and the result of deforestation.
1kg of raw French beef = 34 kg of CO₂ ~ 250 km by thermal car.
Regardless of the farming method, rumination (and cattle burps) account for around 16kg of CO₂. To this we add emissions linked to the use of land to graze or grow forage, processing and transport (low impact) and finally wastage.
So certainly grasslands capture CO₂, but more than three times less than the forests we sometimes cut down to create them. So we're losing a major storage opportunity, not to mention the impact on biodiversity.
Areas dedicated to livestock farming and its feed represent 77% of agricultural land and provide just 18% of the calories consumed. Less meat-based diets could help meet the challenge of lower yields in a transition to agroecology.
🧑⚕️Is it not unhealthy not to eat meat?
Our current overly meat-based diets are deficient in essential amino acids and fiber, so cutting back on meat in favor of plants is beneficial for everyone, particularly in reducing cardiovascular risks and cancers.
According to the Agence Nationale de Sécurité Alimentaire, "vegetarian diets provide a satisfactory quantity and quality of protein for children and adults". Of the 20 amino acids essential to the body's functioning, only 8 need to be supplied by the diet (9 in children). The solution is therefore to add eggs or cheese.
According to additional sources, nuts (particularly those from Brazil) also contain threonine and methionine = the vegan diet (which contains no animal products, and therefore no eggs) could therefore also provide all the essential amino acids. It is however recommended to supplement with vitamin B12, as it is difficult to find in sufficient quantities in plants.
💪Yes, but I need my protein to build muscle!
There are good proteins, often leaner, elsewhere than in meat: this is particularly true of eggs and fish, but also of vegetables, which have even less environmental impact.
For vegans, the best way to ensure protein intake is to combine different plants: legumes (lentils, beans, peas) with cereals (rice, wheat, etc.). Of course, this provides more carbohydrates and, to build muscle, you'll probably need to introduce more cardio (running, cycling, etc.), or vegan protein shakes for competitive athletes.
For those in doubt, here's Jonna Edwinson, a professional vegan body-builder:
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Source : UN data. In 1961, there were 0.45 hectares o
f land to feed one person. By 2011, this had shrunk to just 0.20 hectares. Land degradation could lead to a 10-50% drop in yields by 2050, depending on the region.
In France, the Écophyto II plan aimed to reduce the use of plant protection products by 50% by 2025, and to phase out glyphosate by the end of 2020 for the main uses, and by 2022 at the latest for all uses. The European Green Pact, meanwhile, calls for a 50% reduction in the use of pesticides by 2030, notably under pressure from the FNSEA, which argued that such a ban would put France at a disadvantage compared to its European neighbours.
France has become Europe's biggest organic market in terms of sales and the largest producer, with 2.5 million hectares, or almost 10% of the cultivated land dedicated to organic production. Source: Agence Bio data, as of 2021.
Source : La désillusion du bio - Le dossier de L'Express – L'Express (lexpress.fr), 2021.
Monoprix bought Naturalia in 2008, Carrefour bought Bio c'est Bon in 2021.
Quoted in French weekly magazine L'Express commenting about trends in the organic space observed in France in 2021, Emily Mayer, Director of Research at the IRI Institute, said "( This year) organic products accounted for 8% of references in supermarkets, but only 5% of sales".
The HVE label was created in 2008 following France's Grenelle Environment Forum. The initial aim was to encourage a gradual transition from conventional practices to more environmentally-friendly agriculture.
To learn more about the situation in Spain, we recommend reading this article, which illustrates the potential links between climate change and the rise of extremist parties: https://www.slate.fr/story/228109/espagne-secheresse-argument-extreme-droite-vox-elections-regionales
Two-thirds of frozen and canned vegetables consumed in France are imported. The self-sufficiency rate of the legume sector, which occupies one third of the agricultural land area (70,000 hectares), does not exceed 40%. Source https://www.lesechos.fr/industrie-services/conso-distribution/legumes-la-dependance-de-la-france-aux-importations-de-surgeles-et-conserves-saggrave-1905531