Page 49 - Biorefinery 2030 Future Prospects for the Bioeconomy (2015)

16 1 Unique, Multi-generational Development: A Lesson in Forward Planning

PROVIDENCE agricole worked with other local cooperatives to build shared silos
to reduce costs. This first inter-cooperative partnership, which was not achieved
without problems, was nonetheless the starting point for an unstoppable movement
towards mutualism, and the awareness that joint action was the only way to
7
continue to exist, to develop and to remain competitive. For Ge ´rard Lapie :
We always fought to make farmers understand that it was in their interest to remain united
and we were right: look at the progress achieved in research thanks to the involvement of
the cooperative movement; if we had allowed them to stagnate, it would have been a major
strategic error. 8
Another contribution of the mutualism movement was that early on it encouraged
farmers to be open and innovative. Still today, this quality is very strong in the
farmers of Champagne; they are constantly looking for progress to adapt to new
conditions.
For Robert Mangeart (1999), “Farmers in Champagne are always looking to
progress, they react quickly; they are interested in innovations, they draw practical
conclusions from new information because they are careful observers.”

2.4 Agricultural Cooperatives and Cereal Processing

During an initial period between the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the
1960s, regional cooperatives developed with two main objectives. The first was to
provide their members with silos and supply stores as close as possible to their
farms to reduce costs. The second objective was to remain focused on, and become
more efficient in, their core responsibilities (storing cereals and other crops; sup-
plying fertilizer, pesticides and seed products).
However, from the 1960s, agricultural cooperatives became aware that they had
to go further than these core activities to provide new outlets for their members in
periods of crisis. Certain cooperatives decided to invest in processing activities,
with greater potential for the creation of added value (The ´not 2011), confirming
thus the opinion of Philippe Neeser (1998), President of the FDSEA from 1965 to
1973, that “A quality of Champagne farmers is their ability to come to terms with
change quickly.”
Because of the particular features of the local agriculture, the cooperatives
concentrated their investments in downstream processing mainly on the malt,
milling, maize processing and sugar sectors.

2.4.1 Agricultural Cooperatives and Malt Production
Early on, the cooperative “La PROVIDENCE AGRICOLE” encouraged its
members to develop a crop that was very successful in Champagne, barley, which

7
President of the FDSEA, 1986–1992.
8
Vecten et al. (2012).