Programme

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Tuesday 1st December 2009

Location: Representation of Baden-Württemberg to the EU, Rue Belliard 60-62, Brussels

9.00 Coffee and registration

9:30 Opening

Welcome: Eyke Peveling, Deputy Director of the Representation of the State of Baden-Württemberg

Moderator: Marco Schlüter, IFOAM EU Group Director

• Eskil Erlandsson, Swedish Minister for Agriculture (EU Presidency): The way forward on the climate agenda with special regard to agriculture (Video address)
• Julien Mousnier, Cabinet of Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel (replacing Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development): How to address the agriculture challenges within the CAP and Copenhagen
• Christopher Stopes, IFOAM EU Group President: Organic farming as comprehensive approach to meet EU and global challenges
• Prof. Dr. Manfred Edelhäuser, Head of the Food Inspection Unit, Ministry for Food and Rural Areas, Baden-Württemberg: Organic food monitoring programme in Baden-Württemberg (presentation)

10.30    Coffee break and Press Conference

11.00    Role of organic food and farming as leading model of sustainable food systems

Moderator: Peter Melchett, Policy Director, Soil Association

• Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Co-Chair, International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management : The Climate Policy Challenge and What It May Mean for Agriculture(presentation)
• Hans Herren, President, Millenium Institute: What has policy to deliver to ensure global sustainable food supply (presentation)
  
• Niels Halberg, Director, International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems: Organic Production to contribute to worldwide food security (presentation)
• Urs Niggli, Director, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FIBL, Switzerland: “Organic systems as leading concept of sustainable development, mitigating climate change and halt the loss of biodiversity (presentation)

Further panellist:

• Julien Mousnier, Cabinet of Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel
• Thomas Dosch, IFOAM EU Group Deputy President

Panel discussion

13.30    Lunch Break

14.30    Workshops (parallel session)

Workshop a) Climate change: Meeting the challenges – best practice examples from the organic food supply chain

Moderator: Lieve Van Camp, Unit: Climate strategy, international negotiations and monitoring of EU action, DG Environment

Rapporteur: Bavo van den Idsert, IFOAM EU Group Vice-President

• Wijnand Sukkel, Researcher, Wageningen University and Research Centre: Performance in energy use and climate change mitigation of organic businesses in the Netherlands (presentation)
  
• Victor Gonzálvez, Technical Director, Sociedad Española de Agricultura Ecológica SEAE: Best good practices for mitigating Climate Change with organic farming in Mediterranean conditions (presentation)
  
• Joachim Weckmann, CEO, Märkisches Landbrot: Organic, local and fair - one company's attempt to tackle environmental and climate challenges (presentation)
  
• Johan Cejie, Standards Development Manager, KRAV: Climate Certification within Processing and Production (presentation)
• Jean Cornet, Projects Director, Provamel: Towards carbon neutral production in 2020 (presentation)

Workshop b) EU policies to mitigate climate change and halt the loss of biodiversity

Moderator: Cristina Micheloni, AIAB
Rapporteur: Robert Jordan, Advocacy Manager IFOAM Head office

• Hilkka Summa, Head of Unit, Bioenergy, Biomass, Forestry and Climate change, DG Agriculture: EU policies to mitigate and adapt to climate change within the agriculture and food sector (presentation)
• Stefan Leiner, Acting Head of Unit, Natura 2000, DG Environment: Halt the loss of biodiversity – state of play within the EU (presentation)
• Peter Melchett, Policy Director, Soil Association: Role of organic food and farming in EU strategies to mitigate climate change and halt loss of biodiversity (presentation)
  

Further panellist:

• Urs Niggli, Director, Research Institute of organic agriculture Fibl

Workshop c) Shaping the CAP to face future challenges - 2013 and beyond

Moderation: Jean-François Hulot, Head of Unit, Organic Farming, DG Agriculture
Rapporteur: Alessandro Triantafyllidis, Vice-Chair, IFOAM EU Group policy committee

• Anastassios Haniotis, Director for Economic analysis, perspectives & evaluations, DG Agriculture: Development of the CAP towards a policy serving sustainability (presentation)
• Ariel Brunner, Policy Officer, BirdLife International: Reshaping the CAP into an investment in sustainable food production and biodiversity (presentation)
  
• Thomas Fertl, IFOAM EU Group Vice-President: A new CAP for a healthy environment and high quality food - presentation of  the IFOAM EU vision of the CAP post 2013 (presentation)

16.15    Coffee Break

16.45    Reports from Workshops and discussion

Moderation: Karolina Dytrtova, IFOAM EU Group Vice-President

• Bavo van den Idsert, IFOAM EU Group Vice-President (presentation)
• Robert Jordan, Advocacy Manager, IFOAM Head office (presentation)
• Alessandro Triantafyllidis, Vice-Chair, IFOAM EU Group policy committee (presentation)

17.20    Conclusions

Moderation: Karolina Dytrtova, IFOAM EU Group Vice-President

• María-Angeles Benitez-Salas, Director Directorate H, Sustainability and Quality of agriculture and rural development, DG Agriculture
  
• Christopher Stopes, IFOAM EU Group President

18.00    End of the congress

Evening reception

Location: European Parliament, Salon, Entrance Rue Wiertz, Altiero Spinelli Building (ASP), Brussels

18.30    Reception - Organic Wine tasting, Organic Snacks

19.15    Welcome

• Paolo de Castro, Chairman of the European Parliaments Committee on Agriculture and Rural development
• Christopher Stopes, IFOAM EU Group President

Key note speech:

• Percy Schmeiser, Canadian farmer and canola breeder, winner of the Right livelihood award 2007, member of the International Commission on the Future of Food: The right of farmers to be free from contamination, to be able to use their own seeds from year to year and to respond to consumers demand for healthy food.