I am the initiator of the camembert production, but I’m also strongly supported and accompanied by my brothers and our technical partners. I was born on this farm and after getting my education I decided to settle here and process the milk. I deeply believe that farmers have an important role to play in providing quality products to their customers and improving the impact on the environment; this is the reason why we decided to process milk on our farm with an aim of reducing our CO2 emissions, while developing added value and supporting local employment. Right after my agricultural engineering diploma, I worked 4 years in 2 different companies (an audit firm and a bank) in order to acquire the basics of business management and teamwork, before returning to the farm in 2015. These different experiences are now useful for me to carry out the project and continue to improve the quality of our camemberts. A typical day begins at 6 a.m. simultaneously with cow milking and camembert making (with 24-hour matured milk). The moulding and other work on the cheeses end around midday. As for the milking, it ends at 8 a.m., the facilities must then be cleaned and the animals fed. The afternoon is devoted to preparing orders, turning the cheeses and working in the fields depending on the weather and the season. I like to produce and market a unique product that we develop on the farm. It’s a great satisfaction to be able to offer a camembert to CrowdFarmers directly via CrowdFarming. I also like the diversity of my activity and the alternation of seasons which offers incredibly beautiful landscapes.

5 Frères Camembert is the recent fruit of an old family history added to the siblings’ desire to produce a farmer camembert independently. The farm, located in the village of Bermonville in Normandy, was created in the 1950s by the 5 brothers’ grandparents and was then taken over in the 1980s by their parents. It was in 2016 that the 5 brothers (Charles, Pierre, Victor, Côme and Martin) decided together to process part of the milk to make camembert. In this operation, each brother has its field, according to his affinities and skills. Alix and Laurent, the parents, support their sons in the various activities. Charles is responsible for the transformation of milk into camembert, Pierre is responsible for the production of milk and herd monitoring, Victor is in charge of the production of vegetal crop, Côme at this stage is a versatile employee on the farm and Martin will soon complete his agricultural studies. 4 committed and skilled employees complete the team. On the farm, as is typical in the environment of our agricultural region, we produce wheat, flax, beets, rapeseed, carrots, potatoes, alfalfa, hay and corn. On the farm we have 4 employees, one for breeding and 3 new hires for the processing of milk, who were previously unemployed and who live a few kilometres from the farm. Our herd lives in a very comfortable stable which we refurbished 5 years ago. With a thick mattress for each cow and a mulching of grass once a day. Our herd grazes in the fields 8 months of the year. Outside our cows mainly graze on grass. We supplement the grass supply that we cut daily on our plots near the farm. This guarantees a diet of high nutritional quality. In the winter, the cows stay warm in the barn. We don’t have any irrigation system, it is only thanks to the rainfall that we can produce. Regarding crop production, we are gradually developing organic farming (2 crops this year, 3 next year). To promote biodiversity, hedges and trees are regularly planted. This year we just invested in a micro-anaerobic digestion system to recover the biogas produced by the cows, which supplies a boiler to be used to heat the cheese dairy. The projects we are developing aim to increase the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the farm. If we ever have unsold camemberts, we ship them through a network of solidary grocery stores so that the cheeses aren’t wasted.