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
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 program, designed by the Nicolas Hulot Foundation and FORIM.
Participatory financing
Our Crowdfunding on the Ulule platform exceeded its objective of €3,200 thanks to our 65 contributors in the space of 90 days, and we thank you warmly for that!
Partnerships
We had the opportunity to join the On The Green Road community in February. This partnership provides us with institutional support, linking us to a network of Explor’acteurs, young committed travelers, and will allow us to participate in conferences back from expeditions and participatory workshops.
More information
We are continuing our canvassing activity, and in particular we have been in contact with the New Aquitaine region, and are candidates for the 2020 Student Solidarity Prize organized by Veolia. We are meeting many players, all of whom are very cooperative and supportive.
In addition, we have revised our provisional budget downwards following the cancellation of our departures. So if we have any money left over at the end of the summer, we will of course reimburse you!
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!
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