The TRANSITIONS Programme France 2030 winner
Launched by VIVESCIA and its partners in September 2023, TRANSITIONS* is a winner of the “food resilience and capacity 2023” call for projects. A pioneering programme that aims, by 2026, to provide tangible support for 1,000 farmers in North-east France helping them to transition to regenerative, low-carbon agriculture that promotes soil health and biodiversity.
Officialised on 26 February 2024 at the International Agricultural Show — by Bruno Bonnell, Secretary General for investment in charge of the France 2030 plan, in the presence of the President VIVESCIA Group, Christoph Büren, and its partners — the TRANSITIONS programme will receive €1.9 million in subsidies and advances to train the Cooperative’s technicians and the farmers involved in the project.
Bruno Bonnell, Secretary General for investment in charge of the France 2030 plan, said: “Agricultural cooperatives are very important intermediaries on the ground. We wholeheartedly support the TRANSITIONS programme. The idea is really to get upstream and downstream stakeholders to work together to promote the virtuous transfer of value. The government will continue to support this coalition as it develops.”
Valérie Frapier, VIVESCIA Group CSR Director and Director of the TRANSITIONS Programme, said: “We are delighted to win the “food resilience and capacity 2023” call for projects with this programme developed with the support of our two partners: Axa Climate and Wiuz. We see the French government’s financial backing of our training plan as recognition of what we have built, and a very positive sign of encouragement to continue moving forward and innovating with our upstream and downstream partners in the coalition — a coalition that is growing by the day!”
From left to right: Armand Gandon, head of upstream agriculture for TRANSITIONS, VIVESCIA; Olivier Hautin, Managing Director of Malteurop; Pierre Garcia, Managing Director of Francine & Grands Moulins de Paris; Bastien Sachet, CEO of Earthworm; Olivier Hantz, CSR Director of Tereos; Mickael Portevin, cooperative farmer; Christoph Büren, President of VIVESCIA Group; Bruno Bonnell, Secretary General for investment; Hervé Le Faou, Chief Procurement Officer at Heineken; Xavier Galliot, CSR Director of Roquette; Christophe Beaunoir, Managing Director of Saipol (Avril group); Valérie Frapier, VIVESCIA Group CSR Director and Director of the TRANSITIONS Programme.
*About the TRANSITIONS Programme:
Faced with climate change and the challenges of feeding future populations, as well as the need to meet the expectations of our markets, consumers and citizens, VIVESCIA and its partners decided to shake things up with TRANSITIONS, the first large-scale programme of its kind in France.
TRANSITIONS is a collective effort that brings together upstream and downstream plant and grain industries in a programme that is ambitious and innovative in terms of both its agronomic approach and its financing model. The aim is, by 2026, to help nearly 1,000 farmers in North-east France transition to regenerative, productive farming methods that promote soil health and biodiversity to protect the planet and combat climate change. 200 VIVESCIA cooperative members have committed to the project for three years, starting with the 2024 harvest.
A programme with impact on soil, carbon and biodiversity. Farming practices will have to change to ensure resilient soil that stores more carbon, so that our fields produce as little as greenhouse gas as possible, and so that our farms remain profitable and sustainable. The TRANSITIONS programme aims to mitigate risk for farmers who adopt new practices by ensuring they maintain their yields; it is also about scaling-up these practices and developing a shared language across the industry. On decarbonisation, TRANSITIONS aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2030.
A programme that brings together upstream and downstream members of plant and grain industries, because only a collective solution will enable us to share the cost of the successful, large-scale transition of agricultural and food systems. Roquette, Tereos, Avril and its subsidiary Saipol, and more recently Etea Sedamyl, have decided to join TRANSITIONS alongside VIVESCIA Industries’ companies and brands – Grands Moulins de Paris, Francine, Campaillette, Malteurop, Délifrance, and Kalizea — to meet the 2030 climate targets (SBTi, SNBC ) and secure our supply chains in the face of climate change and the threat to biodiversity.
The VIVESCIA Cooperative and its farmers, with the support of the companies of VIVESCIA Industries, would like to thank all their financial, institutional and technical partners, who have made the decision to get involved in the TRANSITIONS programme
SBTi: Created following the Paris Agreement, and a product of a collaboration between several institutions around the world, including the UN, the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTI) is now the benchmark in terms of companies’ carbon trajectories: https://sciencebasedtargets.org/ - SNBC: The French national low-carbon strategy, currently under revision.
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