Florence

Florence first arrived at Even in 2009 for her apprenticeship as a communication assistant. After completing her vocational bachelor's degree and Masters degree, she aspired towards "a field-based position to work hand-in-hand with the member farmers, the driving force behind the cooperative". Since 2014, she has been in charge of milk quality monitoring for the 200 dairy farmers in her sector. "I also conduct the Passion for Milk® audits which focus on good farming practices, Agri Confiance® NF V01-007 certification and dairy farms' environmental footprint. This new approach interests the farmers, who are keen to known how their farm ranks in relation to the national average. Currently, the farms audited emit an average of 0.87 kg of CO2 equivalent per litre of milk, compared to the national reference average which comes in at around 1 kg". Florence explains that this positive result is thanks to "farmer's technical proficiency and the large expanses of grass and bocage in Brittany". Yet it is still possible to progress further along the road towards low carbon dairy farms. "We offer farmers recommendations on actions which combine economy and ecology, for instance reducing electricity and diesel consumption, decreasing the age at first calving, exploiting other sources of nitrogen such as pulses, etc. Awareness-raising efforts on waste management are paying off too. Currently, over 90% of our farmers sort and recycle their waste: tarpaulins, jerrycans, nets…".