Nuffield CSC 2015 Concludes

Day three of our Nufield Conference and we have heard from a cluster group of sugar beet (and other crops) producers, processors and stakeholders.
Near Reims is a site at Bazancourt-Pomacle that incudes a variety of operations that fit together.

Key to it are the producer cooperatives, some support and a lot of innovation. There was tonnes and tonnes of stainless steel! Working to use as much as they can, they refine the sugar beet and distill the sugars to 99.9% pure ethanol for bio-fuel. Waste products aren't 'wasted' - carbon dioxide is purified and processed into liquid by a separate entity that has its site on part of the larger site - pulp from the beets is returned to paddocks - waste products from the distillation are dried and turned into animal feed.
Also on site are some greenfields enterprises related to "bioeconomy" - cosmetics, plastics, a pilot project producing bio-fuel from tougher, cellulose-rich plant materials. Then there is research and education, with support from a couple of notableFrench tertiary institutes. A wide range of interlinked aspects of "bioeconomy". One of our presenters reminded us that 'alone you get there faster, but together you go further. This place I am sure is testament to that.
Yesterday was the bigger picture of policy, European and French. For our Aussie and Kiwi 'purists' the whole subsidy topic is hard to respond to without prejudice. But it was very interesting to hear some of the history and evolution of the Common Agricutural Policy.
The conference is very well structured with time after each speaker to reflect on what we have heard, to think of comments and questions and then to discuss them at our tables with the aim of arriving at one question from each of the nine tables in the room.
A highlight of being in such an historic place was a paper chase through the streets of Reims, finishing at the Cathedral of Notre Dame Reims.

The cathedral was started in about 1230 and has been built, and restored, in stages. It sufferred major damage during the war, when it was very near the front - even serving as a German hospital briefly before the French retook Reims. Inside it is cold and it is dim... but it is nonetheless soaring.

With it's remarkable arches, stained glass from different periods, statues, candles and even its war wounds, it is a place that many have attached meaning to - and left that legacy.