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Wheat – it’s the key ingredient in our delicious biscuits. And we count on a steady supply of high quality wheat to support our flavorful biscuit business and brands, including LU, Saiwa and Fontaneda.  At the same time, we are deeply aware of our responsibility to preserve and protect our environment.

So in 2008, we created the LU’Harmony wheat initiative in France – a partnership with all members of our wheat production chain, including breeders, farming cooperatives and millers. This unique initiative aims to support sustainable farming in partnership with selected farmers, to help preserve environment and biodiversity, maintain the consistent high quality of our biscuits, and allow us to trace our wheat ingredients – and control all production steps – from the field to our finished product.

We created the LU’Harmony charter, a set of 35 agricultural best practices that cover all wheat development from seed to  harvest. Here are some examples of LU’Harmony best practices:
• Plant a wide variety of wheat, using the most effective soil preparation and crop rotation methods.
• Protect the landscape and biodiversity, including dedicating at least three percent of each wheat field to patches of bee friendly flowers to  provide the pollen and nectar for  insect pollinators such as bees or butterflies.
• Limit fertilizer and plant pesticide use by treating the wheat only when necessary, to ensure the best quality for our wheat.
• Control water use by analyzing, for example, the real needs of the crop, the water soil reserves and the regional climatic conditions.
• Guarantee the quality and security of wheat harvests by following the strict controls of all best practices of the LU’Harmony charter. 
  
We work directly with local selected wheat farmers who follow our charter’s best practices in responsible farming. Within the first three years of our Harmony initiative, more than 650 farmer partners harvested almost 10,000 hectares of wheat in France.
Ultimately, we plan to expand our LU’Harmony initiative across Europe to include all the delicious biscuit brands our consumers love.