Our European Harmony and North American wheat sustainability program designs are specific to local environmental conditions and farming systems. We collaborate and share best practices to evolve and align both programs on innovative ways to reduce our environmental footprint.
We don't just see wheat as a raw ingredient. It was one of the first crops to be cultivated by humans and is now the largest food crop in the world. Wheat is hugely important and we believe in working to ensure it can continue to feed a growing population. However, agriculture is impacted by climate change as water resources become scarce and carbon emissions increase. Wheat farming in particular is especially vulnerable to climate change. That's why we created Harmony — to fulfill our aim to grow wheat in a sustainable way in Europe.
The European Union produces 156 million metric tonnes of wheat per year, with a large portion of that grown in France. Ten years ago, our biscuit brands in France had a vision of a better way to grow wheat, and so Harmony was born.
Through Harmony, we want to change the way wheat is grown and harvested. We work with governments, NGOs and the farmers themselves to drive change and help ensure wheat is grown in a sustainable way.
Harmony farmers are choosing to conserve water, care for the soil, protect biodiversity and reduce carbon emissions. This creates not only better conditions for the essential ingredient for our biscuits, but also enhances local areas where people live. To date, Harmony farmers in Europe have achieved a 20 percent reduction in pesticide use, and in 2016, 21 million bees and 27 species of butterflies were observed in Harmony fields.
At the end of 2016, the Harmony program included more than 2,000 wheat farmers, 14 millers and 21 cooperatives across Europe. Three-quarters of our biscuits in Western Europe are made with Harmony wheat and in France, where the program originated, this figure is as high as 95 percent.
We've made some great progress so far but there is still more to be done. We believe Harmony is the right way of growing sustainable wheat, and we will continue to invest in the program and look for ways to extend our impact.
In North America, our wheat farmers are adopting innovative practices to optimize pesticide and fertilizer use, growing all the wheat we need for our Triscuits brand, with a lower environmental footprint.
We started the program in 2015 with Michigan State University and our supplier of soft white wheat, Cooperative Elevator Company (Coop). We expanded the program to 12,000 hectares and 120 farmers in 2016.
Each year, farmers get a report of their performance versus peers and engage their agronomists on opportunities for improving their yield and environmental footprint. In the first two years, farmers in the program reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent versus the regional average, and only one farmer relied on irrigation, thus minimizing the water withdrawal footprint. The program continues for a third year in 2017, expanding to 139 farmers — of whom 10 percent joined The Nature Conservancy's Saginaw Bay Regional Conservation Partnership Program that we support.