Newsletter number 11 – Autumn 2020
Newsletter 11 End of expeditions 2020 and new team 2021! Hello to all, The 2020 expeditions ended in August. At the beginning of the year we recruited the new team that takes over the torch of the association, Aline and Alexandre. We accompanied them in the beginning of their steps and we wish them a wonderful expedition! A look back at the 2020 expedition Expé A The expedition of Audren, Mathilde and Victoire ended in July. In total, we met 15 projects in 1 month and a half of travel! Each meeting was very rich and we thank once again all the people who devoted time to present their innovative circular economy projects to us! News from the team : Audren is in her last year of Master in Management at ESCP in Berlin and is following the course Sustainability: rethinking business models and the corporation for social innovation. Mathilde is in her last year at AgroSup Dijon and specializes in Agroecology for sustainable crop production. Finally, Victoire has integrated the Master 2 of AgroParisTech Economics of Sustainable Food! Expé O Léna and Salomé finished their expedition in August with the meeting of two projects: Biomédé in Lyon: this start-up is the pioneer and world leader in the extraction of heavy metals from agricultural soils by plants. MicroAlga in Nantes: an innovative young company from the Pays de la Loire region, specializing in the development and manufacture of microalgae production solutions. Expedition #O (for Oceania, destination left too quickly) met with 11 project leaders in 3 months. The discoveries were very enriching, with multi-sector initiatives, proposing innovative and meaningful solutions. Thank you to all those with whom we exchanged and shared unforgettable moments! News from the team : Léna is starting her double degree at HEC and is involved in the HEC sustainable development association. In particular, she had the privilege of leading a conference on micro-credit in the presence of Muhammad Yunus (Nobel Peace Prize, 2006). Salomé entered the AgroParisTech Master 2 in Sustainable Food Economics with Victoire! Presentation of the 2021 expedition CirculAgronomie 2021: New year, new team, new horizons! This year, a new team is joining the Circulagronomie adventure. Aline and Alexandre, both students at AgroParisTech, are taking over the reins of the association for this new season. As every year, an expedition lasting more than 5 months will be organized in order to meet actors of the circular economy, analyze their project and raise awareness of these initiatives in agronomy, environment and food processing. They will travel throughout France and Europe to discover the circular economy initiatives that will make the world of tomorrow. Our latest articles Vous n’avez pas encore eu l’occasion de découvrir les initiatives rencontrées cet été ? Voici nos dernières publications : Bergeries en Ville – Clamart Bergeries en Ville is an association that offers an eco-pasture service in the Haut de Seine to municipalities, companies and public institutions. Eco-grazing is a method of ecological maintenance of natural spaces and territories through the grazing of herbivorous animals. Thanks to her flock of sheep and goats, Marie, the president of the association, maintains 6 ha in ecopastoralism, the equivalent of 8.5 soccer fields. We also met with the Meudon town hall, a partner town of the association, who illustrated the many advantages of eco-pastoralism: cheaper service for uneven terrain or terrain difficult to access by gardeners and machines, work time saved on difficult terrain, less noise from machines (mower, brushcutter, blower) … To learn more about the environmental, social and economic benefits of eco-pasture, you can find the full article and the video, with an interview with Marie, the president of the association, by clicking here Sensei Family – Paris Sensei Family is a young company that aims to develop more sustainable consumer products, with part of the profits going to environmental protection associations. Their first product is the Papa Outang spread. Papa Outang is simply composed of three ingredients: hazelnuts, cocoa and sugar. This gourmet dessert does not contain palm oil, whose exploitation has a negative impact on the forest in Indonesia in particular. 10% of the profits are donated to the Kalaweit association which fights against deforestation on the island of Borneo due to palm oil production. You can find the complete article by clicling here CirculAgronomy this autumn Intervention with the students of the Lycée-Franco Allemand in Buc Tuesday, November 10, 2020, Victoire spoke at her high school near Versailles. She was able to present the circular economy and the projects encountered this summer to 3 classes of second and first graders. The students thus discovered the stakes of the circular economy and its concrete application through examples of projects encountered during our expedition. Their feedback was very positive and we are very happy to have made them discover this fascinating subject! Thank you to Mrs. Perraud for her involvement in our project and for the organization of this intervention! Some feedback from the students : We found the intervention very interesting. Victoire managed to explain circular economy in a very clear, synthetic and accessible way. The examples of companies and associations that she presented helped us to understand concretely how this economy is applied today! Marie, Hermine and Clara The presentation was clear and the graphics simple to understand, helping to better follow the topic. It caught my attention when I didn’t think the topic would be particularly interesting. I was mistaken. Eleonore It made me realize that there was a type of economy that was more respectful of the environment, it made me want to participate in that type of economy. Adèle Unfortunately, the confinement will not have allowed us to present the association and the 2020 expeditions to other audiences for the moment. We would like to privilege face-to-face rather than remote interventions to allow a better exchange. We hope to be able to organize other return mission conferences in 2021. The CirculAgronomy association CirculAgronomie is an association created in 2016 by two AgroParisTech students as
Newsletter number 10 – Jully 2020
Newsletter 10 Our expeditions in France Hello to all, This month we met and analyzed many French initiatives involved in the world of the circular economy. We invite you to discover in this newsletter part of this summer’s CirculAgronomy journey, rich in meetings and discoveries! Expedition A in the Southwest Audren, Mathilde and Victoire made a 4-week trip to the South of France. The expedition started in Bordeaux, where we met 3 projects, each of them valuing unsold bread in their own way, as well as a store selling responsible products, especially fruits and vegetables from their own farm! Expliceat, a solution for the valorization of unsold bread from bakers in France thanks to the Crumbler, a machine that reduces bread crumbs. Seconde Tournée, gourmet recipes made from unsold breads Couleurs Saison, the valorization of bread and vegetables thanks to the unavoidable French toast. Les P’tits Cageots, a responsible store producing organic fruit and vegetables We then spent 3 days on the Basque coast, and discovered a start-up: Scale, having developed an innovative material from fish scales. The following week near Pau was devoted to the meeting of two projects: VirgoCoop, a cooperative that wants to recreate a hemp textile industry in Occitania. Emmaus Lescar-Pau Village, a recycling centre that recovers, repairs and resells all types of objects brought in by local residents. The third week takes place under the sun of Toulouse. 3 projects were interviewed: Humus&Associés, an association that helps to set up composting sites in the residences of the metropolis of Toulouse. We had the chance to exchange with 3 residences integrated in the project in order to collect their feedback. L’île aux légumes, a hydroponic farm in Montauban La Brewlangerie, a bakery making bread from brewers’ grains using unsold bread to make their own beer. The trip ends in Montpellier, where we met the start-up Yuyo, which manufactures surfboards from recycled plastic. Back in the Paris region, Audren and Victoire were able to meet with the Meudon town hall, which has notably set up a partnership with the Bergeries en Ville association for the management of its green spaces in eco-pasture. The majority of the articles and videos for each project have been completed. But the work does not stop there, both on the website and with the recruitment of the new CirculAgronomie 2021 expeditions (more information in the next Newsletter)! Guillaume de SCALE met in Anglet, Ludivine and Vincent de Seconde Tournée interviewed in Bordeaux, Philippe, one of the companions of the Emmaüs Village with whom we exchanged in Lescar and Romain, founder of the Brewlangerie met in Toulouse. Expedition O in Perpignan and Paris Salomé and Léna went to Perpignan for a week to meet 4 initiatives: Localodrive, an eco-drive with zero waste of local products, mostly in bulk. the Miam Collectif, and its associative and solidarity canteen which recovers and cooks unsold organic fruits and vegetables to offer vegetarian meals at free prices. La Casa Bicicleta, a participative bicycle workshop where everyone can come and repair their bikes, whatever their level of knowledge. Pousse-Pousse, a monthly box of zero-waste and eco-friendly products Salome and Léna in their expedition to Perpignan and Paris. On the top left we are in the kitchens of the Miam Collectif, where we participated during 2 days in the collection of unsold goods, cooking and serving meals. You can also admire Léna listening attentively to Camille, the founder of Localodrive or the Salome status in front of the palace of the kings of Majorca. Back in Paris we also met : Arbiom, a future biorefinery to convert wood into food proteins the founders of Fruit and Food, a platform for selling or donating surplus garden produce New meetings are planned in Nantes and Lyon next month! Details in the next and last Newsletter of Léna. A word from the two expeditions We would like to thank all the people we met during our expeditions for their time and sympathy! What a chance to have met project leaders so inspiring, motivated and convinced that the circular economy is a solution to produce, consume and live more sustainably! Our latest articles We are now at 24 initiatives met for our expeditions this summer. Here are the summaries of 2 new articles that we have selected for you: Expliceat (33) Created 5 years ago in Bordeaux, this company works to democratize innovative practices for all actors with food surpluses, to achieve better eating and less waste on a daily basis. More particularly, they are at the origin of the Crumbler project, an anti-gaspi bread-making tool for professionals. More than 50,000 tons of bread are lost each year in France and this machine sold to artisan bakers throughout France allows unsold bread to be transformed into breadcrumbs. This breadcrumbs can then be reused in many sweet or savoury recipes (cookies, muffins, pie dough, pizza dough …). Expliceat saves 2 tons of bread per year and per bakery thanks to the Crumbler! You can find the complete article and the video – with an interview with Frank, founder of Expliceat and a testimony of Guillaume, manager of a bakery which owns a Crumbler – by clicking here SCALE (64) Scale is a start-up from the Basque Coast having invented a sustainable material from fish scales! This co-product does not yet have any value chain and thousands of tons are thrown away each year worldwide (with for example 2 to 3 tons of sardine scales thrown away per week for a large fish wholesaler). However, this material has very interesting properties: it is resistant and can be welded without glue. It is therefore a very interesting co-product to create eco-designed, bio-inspired, bio-sourced, biodegradable and recyclable products! You can find the complete article and the video by clicking here They talk about us CirculAgronomy in Planète Agro magazine Many thanks to Uniagro for dedicating a page of the last Planète Agro on the theme of circular economy to our
Newsletter number 9 – Spring 2020
Newsletter 9 New destinations for CirculAgronomie Hello to all, First of all, we hope that you and your loved ones are doing well and that the confinement was not too hard for you. For our part, we have taken the opportunity to develop the association; by perfecting our analysis tools, our communication platforms and by reorganizing our expeditions. In this Newsletter, we present you the CirculAgronomie 2020 team, our new projects for this summer, as well as our latest work. The CirculAgronomy 2020 Expedition The CirculAgronomy 2020 team As you may already know CirculAgronomie is this year composed of 5 students: Victoire Lemaitre (AgroParisTech) President of CirculAgronomie Specialized in agri-food and CSR Would like to contribute to sustainable development and innovation strategies in large food companies Audren Letellier (ESCP Business School) Treasurer of CirculAgronomie Interested in the zero-waste consumption model and the sustainable management of marine waste Would like to contribute to the development of organizations fighting against climate change and for social justice Mathilde Metout (AgroSupDijon) Specialized in sustainable and resilient agriculture (permaculture, agroforestry) Would like to create a self-sufficient farm based on the circular economy model Léna Momus (AgroParisTech) Communication Manager of CirculAgronomie Specialized in CSR, biorefineries and Green Chemistry Would like to support companies in meeting CSR, health, safety and climate change risk challenges Salomé Schuh (AgroParisTech) Secretary and in charge of the external development of CirculAgronomie Focused on innovation in food, health and the environment Would like to contribute to the transition of food actors to a more sustainable model Our expeditions 🌍 We had planned a first expedition to Latin America (Chile, Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica) because it is a region that is subject to strong environmental pressures and is very affected by climate change. The development of the Circular Economy is therefore crucial there to preserve their resources. 🌏 A second expedition was to travel through Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) because with their wealth of resources, level of development and low population density, these developed and industrialized countries are ideal candidates to become leaders in the transition to a more circular economy. We felt it was important to highlight the initiatives underway. Following the cancellation of our expeditions abroad, we have decided to meet this summer with French initiatives in the Paris region (Paris, Val de Marne, Epinay sur Seine, Meudon, Yvelines), in Haute Savoie, Perpignan, in the Southwest (Bordeaux, Toulouse, Biarritz, Hendaye), in Normandy, in Loire Atlantique (Pornic), in the Drôme (Die) and in Auvergne. And the big departure is officially… this week! With Audren, Mathilde and Victoire in Bordeaux and Léna and Salomé in Perpignan. What will be the impact of our travels? We had planned to make a carbon offset of our trips. We are delighted to be moving away from air travel in favor of a softer form of mobility (train, bicycle and car as a last resort for the least accessible operations). We have decided to make all our offset payments to the myclimate foundation (https://www.myclimate.org/fr/) A new website During these long weeks of confinement, our website www.circulagronomie.org was given a facelift! A big thank you to Audren who, thanks to the online training she took, became our digital expert. Don’t hesitate to take a look at it! A new presentation of the Circular Economy We have also redesigned our explanatory tab: “What is the circular economy”.We explain its differences with the linear economy, some political levers in the history of its development and we detail the 3 areas of action & 7 pillars of the Circular Economy (estimated reading time: 20 minutes) Our latest articles We have already met 6 initiatives since the deconfinement (Les Alchimistes, EcoPertica, Bergerie en Ville, La Loupiote, Recyplant, Le Potager des Castors). Here are the summaries of 2 new articles that we have selected for you: La Loupiote, organic market gardens (64) Mathilde worked during the confinement on this farm, whose production was maintained during the health crisis to provide a sustainable and local supply of healthy, quality vegetables. The gardens of La Loupiote are located near Pau (64), at the foot of the Pyrenees. They practice market gardening on living soil (MSV), an agricultural technique that advocates the non-tillage of the soil and the reconstitution of the natural cycle of the soil to gain an autonomy in fertility. La Loupiote calls on local actors to source organic matter. A system for pooling and recovering materials from several sources has been created: wood from a pruning company is recovered for grinding and farmers have grouped together to centralize their manure (chicken droppings and sheep droppings). The compost comes from a municipal composting platform less than 10 km away. The objective is to reconstitute the natural cycle of the soil so that it can regenerate itself. The external inputs of OM can then be stopped once the autonomy in fertility is acquired. You can find the complete article and the video by clicking here. Eco-Pertica, building materials made of hemp (61) Victoire conducted a remote interview with SCIC Eco-Pertica. This cooperative of collective interest located in the Perche region of Normandy has developed a local hemp industry for eco-construction. Indeed, hemp is a plant with a high recovery rate and is a high-performance biosourced thermal insulator! Eco-Pertica promotes eco-living, craftsmanship and the local development of the hemp industry while respecting the environment. Eco-Pertica also promotes local craftsmanship by working with a network of craftsmen who are experts in eco-construction and by raising the awareness of the local population. You can read more by clicking here. Our institutional and financial support To support our expeditions, we have in recent months participated in numerous calls for projects and made requests for partnerships and funding. Call for projects : We won the Globetalkers 2020 prize from the University of Paris-Saclay and were named 2020 laureates of the AgroParisTech Foundation following the “S’engager” jury in January. We were also finalists in the YOLO 2020 call for projects organized by the Wweeddoo platform and finalists in the Generation Climate
Newsletter number 8 – Autumn Winter 2019/2020
Newsletter 8 CirculAgronomy in the last 6 months Hello to all, The 2 teams of Circulagronomie 2020 were ready for the big departure (flights planned on March 22nd for the expedition in Oceania and on April 6th for the expedition in Latin America), but the current circumstances make that we remained confined in France. We thus take advantage of this transitional period to present you the actions that we carried out these last months to develop the association! In the next Newsletter, we will present you the 2020 expeditions, and how we are going to adapt our projects to face the health crisis of COVID-19. Our latest articles Expedition 2019 has just published several articles on the projects they met last year in Asia. Expedition 2020 is still blocked in France, but last month we visited a farm in Belgium. Here are the summaries of the 2 new articles we have selected for you : BIGH Farm, a sustainable urban aquaponics farm In February we visited BIGH Farm, an aquaponic farm in the heart of Brussels, with local, sustainable and social food production! The farm employs people in reintegration or in a handicapped situation, and contributes to the development of knowledge in aquaponics and urban farming by opening its space to all publics. They raise fish and cultivate tomatoes and organic aromatic plants while saving material and recycling their green waste, all with optimized energy consumption! We have also produced a video to complement the scientific article, which you can view on our website by clicking here Dat Butter, Sustainable Production of Peanut Butter The 2019 expedition met last year with Dat Butter, a company located on the outskirts of Ho-Chi-Minh, Vietnam. A network of local farmers for sustainable peanut butter, its objective is to help Vietnamese farmers develop while pooling resources and teaching a virtuous and reasoned cultivation of peanuts and cashews. You can read the article on our website by clicking here Our circular economy tips In addition to the articles, in the last few months we have made some posts around the circular economy, which you can find on our social networks ! An example of an awareness message published on our Instagram account Conferences and Events Return of 2019 Expeditions The 6 students who discovered last year with CirculAgronomie Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore) and South Asia (India, Nepal, Sri Lanka) gave several conferences on their return. They shared their experience: at the Maison des Agros (AgroParisTech Alumni) at the Quai Voltaire, during an event focused on entrepreneurship, co-organized by the Vitae Forum and UniAgro Agro Entrepreneurs (September 2019). at AgroParisTech, during an evening conference organized by CirculAgronomie and dedicated to students (November 2019). Future of waste Salomé Schuh (exped2020) and Clémence Robson (exped2019) presented CirculAgronomy and the Circular Economy at the Future of Waste #BiodéchetsetPréjugés conference (January 2020). ChangeNOW Summit CirculAgronomie took part in the ChangeNOW Summit at the Grand Palais, the first Universal Exhibition of Solutions for the Planet. We met with many players in the field of environmental and social innovation, particularly in the area of Circular Economy. International Agricultural Show We were invited to the AgroParisTech stand at the Salon de l’Agriculture to make a presentation on CirculAgronomy and Circular Economy. This conference was led by Audren Letellier (expé2020). European Workshop on Bioeconomy CirculAgronomie was represented at the “European Workshop on Bioeconomy” organized by INRAE, IRSTEA and IFPEN in collaboration with three French ministries in October 2019. Léna Momus (expedition2020) was selected to be part of the Young Scientist Panel, where she led round tables on the bioeconomy. CirculAgronomie was also present… at the AfterWork of GreenFlex on “Economic Models of Disruption and Entrepreneurship” (November 2019) at CITÉO’s Circular Challenge de CITÉO, a competition for start-ups in the Circular Economy (December 2019) at the ESCP morning session on indicators of the circular economy, co-organized by the EC Chair, Entreprises pour l’Environnement (EpE) and the Institut National de l’ESCP (March 2020) For the moment, the events and conferences around the circular economy that we were planning to share with you are cancelled or postponed… But we will keep you informed for the rest! The CirculAgronomy association CirculAgronomie is an association created in 2016 by two AgroParisTech students as part of a gap year project. Our ambition is to link circular economy projects around the world in the fields of agriculture and food industry. We analyze their social and environmental impact and their reproducibility through the seven pillars of circular economy described by ADEME. To do so, students in gap year carry out expeditions to different countries every year. This year, we will be 5 students… in France! Newsletter CirculAgronomie Subscribe Facebook Youtube Linkedin Instagram Legal information Copyright CirculAgronomie 2020
Newsletter number 7 – June 2019
Newsletter 7 Three months in Asia! #Expé 1 The #Expé1 started its second month in India with new projects in Bangalore. A circular coconut farm, an edible tableware business and a coconut leaf straw business. Then they went to the state of Kerala to meet a farm that produces and uses compost from fishing waste in Munambham as well as Cherai where there is a public policy of private investment for aquaponics. Finally they crossed South India to get closer to Chennai, from where they will leave for Sri Lanka. In passing they stopped in Pondicherry to visit a permaculture farm. The climate change has serious consequences on India in this month of June! Indeed a scorching heat wave has raised the thermostat to reach record temperatures in Rajasthan. More than 50°C recorded! Moreover the monsoon is several weeks late leading to an unprecedented drought in Chennai. Indeed it is the monsoon that brings nearly 70% of the annual rainfall in this area of India. As a result, the retention basins are empty and the sixth city of India must transport 525 million liters of water per day by truck … These problems prevent us from finishing our adventure with projects in Chennai. These problems prevent us from finishing our adventure with projects in Chennai. We will go there only to take the plane to Sri Lanka, a little earlier than planned. Departure on July 7th! #Expé 2 For its third month of travel, the #Expé2 went to Thailand! More developed than its neighbors, this country is full of innovations and ideas to move towards a circular economy! Tourism represents 10% of Thailand’s GDP. The country welcomed nearly 32 million visitors in 2016. This demographic explosion in a developing country has dramatic consequences on the environment, and on the oceans in particular. However, Thailand owes its attractiveness to its fantastic natural spaces: it has become urgent to preserve them by adopting a more sustainable consumption pattern. The islands are particularly fragile ecosystems because of difficult waste management and with fewer resources. We met with five circular economy projects related to the management of agricultural waste, waste related to tourism and the redistribution of food surpluses for the most deprived. We are leaving Thailand for Malaysia and Singapore, where we will spend our last month of expedition! Our favorite projects! #Expé 1 – Evlogia This start up was created 6 months ago by a professor from Christ University in Bangalore through the Initiatives in Creative Learning for Impact (ICLI) program, which brings together numerous student-led projects. Evlogia brings together more than 150 students from different fields of study at Christ University. To combat plastic, they have developed straws under the name Leafy Straw, made from coconut leaves, a common agricultural waste in this region of India. Indeed, the veins and limbs that make up these leaves become dry and rigid once they fall from the coconut tree and are usually burned on farms. The students realized the method to create different sizes of straws and designed a machine that allows manual workers to work faster and more accurately. With one coconut leaf, 600 small straws are produced. These leaves come from farms around Bangalore but also from Kerala. Evlogia offers 5 types of straws according to the type of drink. The start up was made possible thanks to the ICLI program and the university which is very dynamic in the implementation of eco-initiatives. Another pilot project of the program consists in making sponges from another agricultural waste from the coconut tree exploitation, the coconut fibers. #Expé 2 – Elephant Poopoopaper Park We met a project that is original to say the least! In Chiang Mai, in the North of Thailand, many tourists flock to the animal parks to admire the Asian elephants. An adult elephant produces nearly 150kg of undigested fiber per day. The surrounding villages, which use this faeces as fertilizer, are under-capacitated and mountains of elephant dung accumulate on their doorsteps. This is how Michael and his wife Kanokrat got the idea to recuperate this fiber-rich material to make paper! But this is only part of their business: 80% of their source material comes from the agricultural waste of neighboring farmers. These farmers have no way to get rid of their vegetable waste, and every year, in April-May, a thick black smoke covers the area when all of it is burned. By creating this original product, Poopoopaper Park does not hope to absorb all the waste which is far too numerous, but seeks to contribute to improve the living environment of the inhabitants as well as to sensitize its growing public! Conference and Event The #Expé2 had the opportunity to attend the Circular Living Symposium 2019 in Bangkok! This conference, organized by PTTGC and supported by National Geographic, aimed to promote the circular economy and discuss new ideas and challenges, with interventions from experts from around the world, Thai and international companies and foundations. It was an opportunity for us to discover the latest news and trends, especially on the theme of plastics, and to admire the Thai and international commitment. Attending this international event was a real source of inspiration and motivation, showing that many companies and actors are ready to take the plunge all over the world! Quick return to France, with the organization of the awards evening by the AgroPArisTech Foundation for the projects supported this year. We are very proud to have been able to participate thanks to the presence of our President, Marc-Antoine, and part of the 2020 team already formed with Salomé and Léna! The CirculAgronomy association CirculAgronomie is an association created in 2016 by two AgroParisTech students as part of a gap year project. Our ambition is to link circular economy projects around the world in the fields of agriculture and food industry. We analyze their social and environmental impact and their reproducibility through the seven pillars of circular economy described by ADEME. To do so, students in gap year carry out
Newsletter number 6 – May 2019
Newsletter 6 News from Asia Now it’s time to start the biggest part of our trip, the #Expé1 is now in India for 10 weeks. Enough time to cross this gigantic country (by train and bus only) and meet its population. The second largest in the world with nearly one billion three hundred million people! In this period we find hot temperatures in the north with an average of 43°C during the day and 30°C at night. In the south the temperatures are milder and the harvest should arrive at the end of June with a little delay. There are 22 recognized regional languages including Hindi, the official national and government language and the majority in the north of the country. The 23rd language of the country and second national language is English, which the Indians speak among themselves when they do not have the same language of origin and is also the language of instruction. During our first month in the Indian subcontinent we met 5 projects. In New Delhi, Jaipur and Bangalore, these projects concern the management of waste through the use of compost, the improvement of food quality, the help to the most deprived populations and farmers (50% of the workers) as well as the limitation of food waste! After a first month in Vietnam, the #Expé2 went up Cambodia and then Laos during the month of May. These two countries with young populations are still marked by the wars of the 20th century, and the circular economy is for the moment more present in the agricultural sector. With respectively 50% and 70% of their active farming populations, Cambodia and Laos are countries shaped by traditional food-producing agriculture, which is beginning to open up to new production methods. Five initiatives were encountered during this period: projects in agro-ecology, the exploitation of ecosystem services and the valorization of agricultural bio-waste, representative of what is being implemented across the countries. We are now heading towards Thailand, a country to which we will devote the month of June. We look forward to sharing with you the future projects we will meet! Our favorite projects! #Expé1 – Guna With this company, Neha Upadhyaya is helping the village of Tamachik. Located in the heart of the mountainous region of Kashmir, in Ladakh, she was able to turn it into an eco-village. It has provided the inhabitants with low-tech solutions adapted to their needs, such as a solar dryer for apricots. They are easy to assemble, transport, use and inexpensive. Their main production is organic apricots. Before its arrival, there were a lot of losses due to the low storage capacity and the short lifespan of the apricots once picked. Dried organic apricots have a shelf life of 2 years compared to 2 days for fresh non-organic apricots and sell them more expensive while having 30% less loss. Guna has enabled this village to switch to organic production, and also allows the maintenance of agricultural activity and supports the emancipation of women. With this success, Neha is happy to have 8 other surrounding villages that wish to follow the same path. #Expé2 – Naga Earth Naga Earth is a company located in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Initially created as an NGO, Naga Earth’s first project was to create a process to transform cooking oils from restaurants into biodiesel. Like other Southeast Asian countries, Cambodian cuisine requires a lot of cooking oil, which is often thrown away without treatment. In addition, in order to save money, most restaurants reuse the same oil many times, which has a very harmful effect on long-term health. Naga Earth thus provides 5000L of biodiesel per month to its customers. The co-product of the process of transforming the oil into biodiesel, glycerine, is transformed into soap which is distributed free of charge to humanitarian associations in the region. Glycerine is also used to create cleaning products sold to businesses. In both cases, the products are delivered in returnable packaging to save plastic. In addition, Naga Earth is experimenting with a plastic recycling system using four machines under construction. The latest project to date is the purchase of a machine to crush glass bottles and reduce them to sand that can be embedded in concrete. In addition to its commitment, Naga Earth wishes to transmit its knowledge to as many people as possible through collaborative workshops! The CirculAgronomy association CirculAgronomie is an association created in 2016 by two AgroParisTech students as part of a gap year project. Our ambition is to link circular economy projects around the world in the fields of agriculture and food industry. We analyze their social and environmental impact and their reproducibility through the seven pillars of circular economy described by ADEME. To do so, students in gap year carry out expeditions to different countries every year. This year, we will be 5 students… in France! Newsletter CirculAgronomie Subscribe Facebook Youtube Linkedin Instagram Legal information Copyright CirculAgronomie 2020
Newsletter 5 – October December 2018
Newsletter 5 Our new members This year, 2 expeditions are leaving to discover the circular economy in Asia. After Nepal, Clémence Robson, Julie Limasset and Virgil Hervagault are currently in New Delhi, the beginning of a two-month trip to India. The second expedition, composed of Clémence Gagnaire, Clémence Chatué and Manon Mangin, is now in Cambodia after having crossed Vietnam for one month. On the Parisian side, we welcome Julie Leroux, a new AgroParisTech graduate, who is in charge of setting up our new analysis tool. It will be tested by the two expeditions. News from the expeditions! Expé1 met with 6 projects in Kathmandu and Pokhara, Nepal. This small country located on the Himalayas between the two giants China and India, is at the beginning of its economic expansion. Agriculture remains mainly food-producing and the food industry is non-existent: processed food is imported from India. The projects encountered are therefore more oriented towards the management of plastic waste – a real environmental problem here, as well as the creation of cooperatives and technical and economic information centers for agriculture, which is still underdeveloped. The Expé2 has just spent a month discovering projects in Vietnam! During our trip from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, we met 13 projects. All of them quite young – most of them were created less than a year ago, they are symbols of the exponential growth of the Vietnamese economy and of the growing interest of the population for the environment, especially in relation to plastic pollution. After crossing the border a few days ago, we are now ready to set off to meet Cambodian initiatives! Spotlight on the… #Expé1 – The Bazaar/ DV Excellus The lack of a structured agricultural market in Nepal leads to significant daily price fluctuations. The bazaar, together with the Bazaar Agricultural Cooperative, has created a weekly market for vegetable producers in Pokhara. Produce comes from the Kaski district, where farmers’ property covers an average of 0.2 hectares (4 Ropani). The creation of the cooperative allows for joint purchases of agricultural inputs, which reduces costs for farmers. It also provides professionals with a regular supply. They are collaborating with DV Excellus, which is developing “Blooom”, a smartphone for agricultural professionals and buyers. For the moment, it provides a basic service to a network of 5000 farmers. The implementation of this application allows the collection of data on soils, crops and climate, and will provide personalized and environmentally friendly technical monitoring. In the long term, the goal is to expand throughout Nepal! The network will expand to 10,000 members next month. #Expé2 – Greenjoy Straw This Ho Chi Minh start-up produces straw from a hollow grass that has been growing for centuries on the banks of the Mekong River: Lepironia Articulata. The straws are grown naturally, without chemicals. After drying, they can be stored for 6 months until they are used. Then they can be decomposed under natural conditions in less than 5 days.These single-use straws may not be the most suitable for personal consumption. However, they are a good substitute for Vietnamese stores and restaurants, which are fond of plastic straws.Although it represents only 0.025 percent of the 8 tons of plastic dumped into the oceans each year (source: National Geographic), 8.3 billion straws still pollute our beaches. Green straws are a step towards a more sustainable world! The CirculAgronomy association CirculAgronomie is an association created in 2016 by two AgroParisTech students as part of a gap year project. Our ambition is to link circular economy projects around the world in the fields of agriculture and food industry. We analyze their social and environmental impact and their reproducibility through the seven pillars of circular economy described by ADEME. To do so, students in gap year carry out expeditions to different countries every year. This year, we will be 5 students… in France! Newsletter CirculAgronomie Subscribe Facebook Youtube Linkedin Instagram Legal information Copyright CirculAgronomie 2020
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July 2020
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