Format: In-person
Date: Friday, 17 January 2025
Time: 13:30-15:00 CET
Location: Expert Panel #13, Global Forum for Food and Agriculture
The panel will discuss transformational changes in agriculture and forestry as part of a sustainable food system and bioeconomy.
The development of a sustainable bioeconomy is a key element of a societal transformation towards carbon neutrality and broader socio-economic development. A growing bioeconomy provides farmers and forest owners with new economic opportunities and income sources due to the increasing demand for biomass and bio-based materials for industrial processes, packaging, construction, and many other purposes.
At the same time, a growing bioeconomy will require adjustments in agricultural and food systems around the world, including sustainable consumption of food and other biomass in combination with more efficient agricultural production and the protection of valuable ecosystems. In combination, these adjustments can help reducing trade-offs between ambitious climate change mitigation, food security, and biodiversity protection.
In this session, we discuss transformational changes in agriculture and forestry as part of a sustainable food system and bioeconomy from a global as well as EU perspective. We will bring together the perspectives of scientists, young farmers’ representatives, and the EU commission.
Together with the audience, the panel of presenters will also discuss concrete policy options for incentivizing a sustainable biomass production in the context of diversifying agri-food systems, as well as barriers to implementation and political economy considerations.
Panel discussion including the audience (45min)
- Introduction to the session and the panel (Hermann Lotze-Campen, PIK) (5min)
- A global food system transformation can help to avoid trade-offs in a growing bioeconomy (Caterina Ruggeri Laderchi, Director, Food System Economics Commission) (10min)
- Agriculture and forestry in the context of the food-system and bioeconomy in a climate neutral EU (Christine Chemnitz and Harald Grethe, Directors, Agora Agrar) (10min)
- Challenges and opportunities regarding the implementation of a sustainable bioeconomy for the agricultural sector (Marion Picot, Secretary General, European Council of Young Farmers, CEJA) (10min) [to be confirmed]
- An EU policy perspective on a sustainable bioeconomy (Peter Wehrheim, Head of Unit for Bioeconomy and Food Systems, EU DG Research) (10min)
