Regenerative Land and Food Systems Innovation Centre
Soil, water, biodiversity and food production form an interconnected system. This centre develops applied research around the estate’s cultivated landscape and the practical decisions involved in caring for it.
The cultivated land is farmed by SCEA Abbaye Saint Pierre de Lacour, which holds the agricultural certifications and the operating responsibility. Research access is arranged with the organisation responsible for each space, activity and asset.
Research strands
Four lines of enquiry, each with the goals it pursues and the measurements the land can supply.
Comparable records of soil condition and management practice, and interventions studied through repeated sampling, appropriate comparison areas and documented management histories.
The estate holds archival material about how this land has been used. Archival evidence can inform a historical question; it cannot substitute for a measurement that was never taken, and an old estate plan is not a soil record.
The first task is to establish a documented soil baseline. Researchers will assess whether retained samples and historical records are suitable for comparison, accounting for sampling locations, storage and methods. Organic and other management systems can be compared using an appropriate study design.
The holding could contribute a documented field site to wider soil and agroforestry research. Any comparison with other sites will need compatible measurements and management records.
Orchard diversity, habitats, pollination and the relationship between production and ecosystem function. The collection needs to be identified and dated before any variety or species count is used in a claim, and managed-hive data is one observation source among several — honeybee records do not by themselves describe pollinator biodiversity.
The fruit collection offers a concrete question within an established field: how can varieties conserved on a working farm be documented, evaluated and maintained? A dated inventory must establish identities, planting history and the area occupied by the orchard. The approximately twelve hectares describe the cultivated holding, not the orchard alone.
Possible work includes recording variety identity and condition, evaluating performance under local conditions and documenting the growers’ knowledge and management choices. Links with conservation collections and research networks would be developed by agreement.
Monitored hives could support studies of colony health, forage and seasonal conditions with specialist partners. Their records do not by themselves describe wild-pollinator diversity. Participation in a monitoring network would require a separate agreement and compatible protocols.
Rainfall, runoff, infiltration, retention, water quality and the management decisions that affect them.
Plot and soil-profile studies could measure infiltration, soil structure, moisture at different depths and crop water use. The scale and boundaries must match the question. A complete water balance requires appropriate measurements of inputs, outputs and changes in storage.
Three features make the holding worth instrumenting rather than merely available:
The rain gauge and spring offer potential observation points. A hydrologist must establish the spring’s catchment and connections before its flow or water quality is interpreted as a response to management on these parcels. Rainfall and spring discharge alone do not close a parcel water balance.
The setting is not incidental. In the Garonne plain of Tarn-et-Garonne, summer water restriction is an ordinary part of the farming year, so questions about retention and crop water use here are not hypothetical ones.
Where a question extends to a catchment or river basin, the holding could contribute observations to a wider study. Monitoring design and collaboration with other landholders would be established by the research partners.
Connections among production, processing, shared meals, food heritage, resource use, waste, skills and local economic value. The test we care about is whether a practice is feasible for the people who would have to carry it out, which means comparing options with them rather than for them.
Food heritage as cultural knowledge is studied with the Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries Innovation Centre, where it is now treated as a research question in its own right.
The goals of this strand are to test whether diversified crops and shorter value chains genuinely improve a farmer’s profitability and resilience, comparing organic management against other systems rather than assuming its advantage; to make the organic sector’s contribution to sustainability measurable, including from the certification records a certified holding already generates; to study how a rural community absorbs a shock, with the people who absorb it; and to establish what part a small farm and a small food business play in food security — a question with a substantial research literature behind it, in which holdings of this size are the subject rather than the exception.
A first collaboration would identify the available records of inputs, yields, processing and management with the SCEA. Those records can help frame comparisons and practical questions about farm resilience; any missing baseline would be documented.
The holding could support field studies, demonstrations and training developed with research and agricultural partners. Its accommodation and workspaces make it possible to combine observation, practical work and discussion in one visit.
Any participation in a living-lab network or recognised demonstration scheme would be described with its agreed role and confirmed status. Such membership or recognition is not claimed here.
| Asset | Operator | Research use |
|---|---|---|
| Approximately twelve hectares, organic and HVE level 3 | SCEA | Possible trial plots and management records, subject to an agreed protocol |
| Mixed fruit collection of heritage varieties | SCEA | Identification, documentation and on-farm conservation studies |
| Soil sampling records and retained samples | SCEA | Assessment of suitability for historical comparison before use as a baseline |
| Monitored beehives | SCEA | Colony and seasonal observations; network participation by separate agreement |
| Rain gauge and spring | SCEA | Rainfall, flow and water-quality observations within a defined study design |
| Processing workshop and cold storage | SCEA | On-farm handling; scientific sample storage by separate arrangement |
| Residential capacity and kitchen | SAS | Field schools, training and project meetings held on site |
At Mas-Grenier, Tarn-et-Garonne, access to agricultural assets is arranged with the SCEA. Each study specifies the parcels, available records, measurements, permissions and responsibilities it needs.
Proposed methods include field protocols, repeated sampling, documented management logs, biodiversity observation, water-balance work with hydrological specialists, lifecycle assessment and farmer-led evaluation.
Useful outputs include reproducible field records, practical management guidance, transferable monitoring approaches, and honest evidence on costs and adoption.
Associated initiative · SCEA
AQUI-RETAIN
How rural landscapes can retain water and support aquifer recharge under suitable environmental and operating conditions, combining field monitoring, water-quality safeguards and the real costs of continued operation. The Abbey setting is proposed as a transfer demonstrator through the SCEA, within a study area defined at catchment scale.
A planned intervention, not existing recharge infrastructure.
Concept in development
ATLANTIS
An early concept. The research question, the local activities and the Abbey’s role are being defined.
We welcome enquiries from soil scientists, agronomists, ecologists, hydrologists, food-systems researchers and agricultural advisory organisations. Bring a question that could benefit from a working farm, particularly the documentation and conservation of fruit varieties in use.