Promoting Regenerative Agriculture

The agri-food industry has a key role to play in ensuring sustainable food supplies in sufficient quantities to feed over 10 billion people by 2050. However, the sector faces an uphill struggle with such daunting obstacles as soil erosion, water stress and greenhouse gas emissions, which account for almost a third of global carbon emissions. When it comes to tackling these challenges, food represents a large part of the solution, but courage is needed to change the business model.

At Bel, we are determined to act as a catalyst in driving the food transition and transforming agricultural practices.

Agriculture may often be seen as part of the problem, but here at Bel we are convinced that it can be the solution. This means that the processes for producing our ingredients must have a positive impact on the environment and people by actively helping to preserve biodiversity and combat climate change.

We are convinced that regenerative agriculture will create the positive impact that we are all looking for!

Regenerative agriculture as a solution

Regenerative agriculture refers to a set of farming and grazing practices that offer a wealth of advantages:

Taking action to embrace sustainable sourcing practices for our raw materials

Our ecosystem-oriented approach

As an active force in the food ecosystem, we have a responsibility to support and help our partners in the milk and production sector to overhaul their practices and adopt regenerative methods.

That is why we have spent several years focusing our efforts on transforming agricultural models, especially through our charter for a sustainable upstream dairy sector signed alongside WWF France and our decision to source apples from eco-responsible orchards.

Now we want to take our commitments to the next level. With a helping hand from WWF France and Earthworm Foundation, we have developed a global set of regenerative agriculture guidelines that give focus to the three key pillars of sustainable development, i.e. environmental, social and economic.

This overarching approach addresses six main objectives: preserve soil health, encourage carbon sequestration and curb emissions, improve biodiversity, increase water quality while reducing water use, scale down the use of inputs, and ensure that farms are economically viable.

We are committed to supporting farmers in migrating to more environmentally-friendly practices. With this aim in mind, we are working to incorporate the specific characteristics of each region and agricultural sector. We provide farmers with the support, resources and knowledge that they need to adopt more responsible practices with the objective of safeguarding our planet for future generations.

Milk

In partnership with WWF France and Earthworm Foundation, the Bel Group is actively committed to injecting greater sustainability into its milk supply chain, while combining sustainable management with innovative agricultural practices. In addition to leading projects to shrink its carbon footprint and ramp up its sustainability performance, Bel has spearheaded a number of regenerative agriculture pilot projects in the United States and Portugal (mainland and the Azores). These projects are aimed at futureproofing an environmentally-friendly and socially viable milk supply chain. To find out more about our initiatives for shaping a sustainable dairy industry, click here.

Fruit

Bel is also active in the market for healthy fruit snacks with the Pom’Potes and GoGo SqueeZ brands. We are clearly committed to offering the best fruit while championing sustainable farming practices. We are firmly convinced that the quality of our products can be credited to our raw materials supply chain. That explains why we have been taking steps for several years to ensure that our procurement practices are ever more responsible and sustainable.

In France, all our fresh apples are sourced from certified eco-responsible orchards.
In the United States, 23% of our fresh apples are organic.

To raise the bar even higher, we have launched a number of regenerative agriculture pilot projects for apples in France in 2023 in collaboration with Biosphères, and those projects will be replicated in the United States early 2024 in collaboration with Understanding AG.

Plant-based ingredients

Sustainable sourcing is extremely important to our Group. That is why we go to great lengths to carefully select the plant-based ingredients used in our products in a bid to combat deforestation, minimise our carbon footprint and protect biodiversity. With this aim in mind, we have defined a common set of commitments for sourcing all the plant-based ingredients used by the Group. Firstly, plant-based ingredients must be non-GMO, free from the risk of deforestation, compliant with defined ethical practices and sourced from suppliers and sectors that uphold ethical business principles. Secondly, these ingredients are classified according to their country of supply for the purpose of identifying and managing the specific risks. Finally, we encourage the use of ingredients that respect the key principles of regenerative agriculture or which come from organic sources whenever possible.

To go one step further… the Bel Group has firmed up its commitments by launching a movement to drive the agricultural transisition forward

All the milk and apples used in Bel’s products will come from regenerative agriculture by 2030, and this process will be extended to all key raw materials by 2035.
The Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture was launched in 2023.

Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture

When it comes to leading a major and long-lasting change in agricultural practices, Bel firmly believes that it is vitally important to garner the support of all the stakeholders in the agri-food sector, including cooperatives, farmers, breeders, distributors, experts, NGOs and consumers. That is why Bel has decided to launch the Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture:

Launch of the Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture

The Alliance is focused on exchanging and sharing best practices on regenerative agriculture. To find out more, click here.