Organic milk in Brittany: the price per liter cannot be the only parameter of a conversion

Text by: Sylvie Noël Follow

In Brittany, the number of organic farms jumped from 2.8% to 10% between 2009 and 2019. This dynamism is particularly visible in the organic milk sector, which represents one farm in four. Brittany is the second region producing organic milk in France, behind the Pays de la Loire. What are the reasons and the challenges of this vitality? Interview with an actor in the field, Christophe Baron, president of Biolait from 2010 to 2018 and partner in the Gaec de Brandeha in Allaire (Morbihan) which produces long-term organic milk and short-circuit, in particular, meat, juice apple and organic honey.

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RFI: The Gaec de Brandeha today brings together four farmers in the town of Allaire. Eighty cows on an area of ​​180 hectares and a production of more than 400,000 liters of milk per year. In 2001, it was you who made the choice to switch to organic farming. What prompted you to make this choice ?

Christophe Baron : It was a combination of circumstances. I had been made aware of the question of pesticides during a conference in Pontivy, in 1991. The transition to organic was in my head, but I did not feel like taking the plunge, alone. Finding a friend who had always worked in organic farming was the trigger that enabled the conversion to start in 2001, 10 years after becoming aware of the problem of pesticides. At the time, if everyone was talking about nitrates, the question of pesticides was hardly mentioned. 

In Brittany, there are today 3,050 organic farms, but in 2001 when you started the conversion of your farm, what was the local reality? How was your decision perceived? 

Within a radius of 25 kilometers, there was no organic milk farm, however there were already two market gardeners (in Allaire and Béganne), because in Brittany, the history of organic is linked to market gardening. The decision to switch to organic provoked several reactions: those who said "  we must see  ", those who said that we were going to crash, that we could not feed our cows the following winter. On the other hand, many consumers encouraged us and it was really a satisfaction. 

Over the years, has the outlook on organic farming changed?

Yes, it has changed for several reasons. We had the Grenelle of the environment and a societal discourse which made things change. The milk crises in the conventional supply chain have also shown that there is no economic truth in the conventional supply chain. When we went organic here, the conversion appeared to be an economic risk, and in the end, over the years, the succession of milk crises in 2009/2010 and then in 2015 was harsh and caused waves of conversions. The one that brought me to the hinge of the 1990s and 2000s was the result of the mad cow crisis. But the following waves in 2009/2010, and then in 2015 directly resulted from the economic crises that hit the conventional milk sector. Each health or economic crisis has shown that organic can be of interest to producers. To give you an idea, when I accepted the presidency of Biolait, there were 270 member farms, when I left it in 2018, there were 1,300. Over the same period, the milk collection passed from 40 million liters to 300 million. 

In 8 years, Biolait has therefore experienced significant development. Has such growth had repercussions on the management of the organic milk sector?

Managing the organic milk sector means managing the jolts. When I chaired Biolait, we used to say that organic conversions worked like a battery with a positive pole and a negative pole. The negative pole is the waves of conversions that systematically accompany the crises of conventional agriculture, which we can never be happy about. The positive pole is the sustained growth in the consumption of organic milk. For 30 years, consumption has been constantly increasing, of the order of 10% per year. But this steady growth does not absorb the sudden increases in production, which can reach 40 to 50% at the height of the conversion waves. If despite these jolts, the price of organic milk has remained constant, it is thanks to the economic weight of the Biolait group (30% of organic milk production in France) and the choice of producers who have sometimes decided to decrease by production to maintain the price. 

As the organic milk sector is growing, isn't there a risk of volatility in the price of organic milk in the long term, as is the case in the conventional?

It's a good question, but it's hard to answer now. Today, due to the limited development of the organic sector [1 billion liters of organic milk against 25 billion in the conventional sector, note], organic milk producers retain weight in decisions. If tomorrow the organic sector should be managed in the image of the conventional sector with a liberal approach to volume management, dairies alone to maneuver, multinationals, and producers who can no longer be heard, then, yes, it would clearly be a risk. 

The Biolait group was born in 1994. Six farmers from Morbihan and Loire Atlantique had the idea of ​​creating a group to collect organic milk in Brittany, the cradle of productivist agriculture. It was a crazy bet, right?

Yes. Moreover, when we celebrated the 20th anniversary of Biolait, 5 years ago, one of the founders said "  if we had known that it would have been so complicated, we would not have done it  ". A small anecdote: all the dairies at the time asked the sellers of tanks not to sell them to the producers who wanted to work with Biolait. The objective was clear: to prevent the creation of the group, because without tanks, it was impossible to store milk on the farms. We had to look abroad. It was a Belgian company that agreed to install the tanks on the farms. This very strong project was led by producers faced with the failure of union actions given the balance of power. They understood that to weigh on the sector, it was necessary to go beyond the union dimension and think about the economy. It was necessary to create a structure capable of influencing the negotiations.  
Clearly, a number of rules had to be broken in order to bring such a project to fruition. When we see the impact it has had on the management of organic milk, we tell ourselves that sometimes it's worth it to break the rules a little. 

In 2016, two out of three organic certifications were conversions in Brittany, mainly in the organic milk sector. This means that the progression is mainly due to farmers who switch from conventional to organic. Some clearly say that they have started the conversion more for the price of organic milk than for ethics. We hear calls to preserve the organic spirit. Is it in danger?

Those who go organic only on the criterion of the price of a liter of milk are mistaken. Organic is a global approach to farming. The price of milk is one element among others in the economic balance of a farm, but the inputs (purchase of fertilizers, soy to feed cows, etc.) weigh as much, if not more, than the price of milk. Say otherwise, an organic farm must be autonomous. In terms of specifications it is good, in terms of economic balance of the farm it is even better. I remember a report on a farmer who had 200 dairy cows. He had chosen conversion, but he had failed in organic farming, as he had failed in conventional farming. 200 dairy cows with a single operator this implies enormous costs to manage such a herd, feed it as well as a necessary modernization. All this at a financial cost. This is why I think that organic is not made to marry an industrial model. For example, on the Brandeha farm we have 80 cows and produce around 400,000 liters of milk for four. In general, in organic, we are on volumes of 100 to 150,000 liters of milk per person working on the farm, rarely beyond 200,000 liters. Conventionally, the model in robotic farms is more between 400 and 600,000 liters of milk per person working on the farm. Putting these numbers into perspective gives an idea of ​​the difference.

Would you say that local public authorities provide support and assistance to the organic farming sector? 

I would say that in Brittany we are not the worst off. Certainly, one could hope for more, but the producers of organic milk have not been abandoned in terms of public subsidies. That said, in terms of redirecting public funds we can wonder when we see the tens of billions of euros allocated to a form of agriculture that does not correspond to employment or food quality.

In August 2018, the president of the regional council Loïg Chesnais-Girard declared: “L a Bretagne turns the page on productivist agriculture.  "Is that also your feeling?

No, because in Brittany, a form of industrialization of agriculture continues. I do not mean to say that the effects of modernization are 100% negative, but for what I know best, milk production, I am not sure that the robotization of farms for example, is a great idea while raises the question of employment as well as that of environmental balance. Clearly when we robotize a breeding, it means that the cows go out little, consume very little grass or not at all. So it all depends on how the president of the Brittany region sees the concept of intensification, but for me, I rather have the impression that it is accelerating. 

Discussions are underway for the next CAP budget. What do organic farmers expect?

There is a strong expectation in terms of recognition of our way of working towards the environment. Historically, we have had fewer European subsidies, because the calculation is based more on crops than on grassland systems. Furthermore, even if there have been compensations compared to agro-environmental measures, there is not really recognition of what one can call agroecology in terms of respect for biodiversity, development hedges in the fields, care given to landscapes. All of this generates working hours. Recognition today is only achieved through the price of milk. For the moment, we are fortunate to benefit from growing consumption, a price which is maintained due to the weight of producers in the sector. If we were to lose this tomorrow, and not get recognition for the positive impact of organic farms, we can fear that the economic balance of organic farms as it exists today would be called into question.

► Also read: Organic farming in Brittany: collective self-organization in action

►Also read: Marie Rolland, organic market gardener: "It is a pride to feed people"

►Also listen: Organic is taking root in Brittany 

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Organic farming in Brittany: collective self-organization in action