Jean Abbiateci hadn’t really thought about becoming a journalist. However, when he was 18, he received a grant to go to Lapland and meet the reindeer farmers, after which he returned to Lyon to study history. Looking for jobs, he accepted a contract studying part time at the CFPJ journalism school and working part time for a rural weekly agricultural publication in St Etienne. Now determined to pursue this career, he set himself up as a freelance journalist, moved to Rennes and developed an interest in the social impact of the economy. His articles on Morocco and Haiti prompted him to look into the globalisation of waste. “The Lagardère grant has finally given me what I was lacking the most,” he explains. “The time and the means to completely devote myself to a subject.”  Every good investigative journalist’s dream.