Congress programme

The new CAP is characterized by a ‘New Delivery Model’, which should balance environmental ambitions with a flexible and robust results-based framework. It will move to a decentralized system that gives more power to countries and regions to design their measures according to their specific needs. Moreover, new instruments such as eco-schemes in the first pillar could create incentives for farmers deliver public goods. At the same time, budget of the second pillar (on rural development) could be severely cut, which probably have an impact on conversion and maintenance aids.

The ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy for sustainable food is looking at how the agri-food sector can improve the sustainability of food production across the food chain, including through organic production and organic public procurement. One of the promising elements of the Farm to Fork Strategy is an ambitious target for increasing organic land by 2030.

The objective of this session is to discuss the possible interactions between current CAP negotiations, and especially the Strategic Plans Regulations, and the ambitions of the Farm to Fork Strategy. How can it be ensured that the new CAP will reflect the ambitions of the European Green Deal?

Opening speech:
– Wolfgang Burtscher, Director General for Agriculture and Rural development, European Commission

Panel discussion:
– Walter Dübner, Head of Division Agricultural Production and Horticulture, German Ministry of Food and Agriculture
– Norbert Lins, MEP and chair of Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development
– Jan Plagge, President, Bioland/ IFOAM EU
Moderator: Eduardo Cuoco, Director, IFOAM Organics Europe

Following the session – additional video presentation: – Jürn Sanders, Senior Researcher, Thünen Institute – “20 percent are possible – Lessons learnt from the German Federal Organic Action Plan”

The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the crucial role that farmers, farm workers, processors, retailers and food workers play to deliver essential goods to people, and the need to better value these actions. It also highlights the fragility of our current food system, deeply interconnected at the international level. Long production chains are highly vulnerable to travel and transport restrictions and to fluctuations in markets. This vulnerability to pandemics and lock downs adds to the vulnerability of our food system to climate change. It is time to collectively discuss how to make our food production more resilient, through diversity and agroecology, and better rooted at the local level through shorter supply chains. We should also discuss how to lessen the impact of food production on biodiversity and habitats destruction, and how to make intensive livestock production less susceptible to contribute to new zoonoses. This session aims to discuss what lessons we should learn from the virus, how European agriculture should evolve after the crisis and what policymakers could do to build a more sustainable and more resilient European food system. We will also discuss the European Commission’s Recovery Plan for a post Covid-19 world and the European Green Deal.

Opening speech:
Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, European Commission (Video)

Panel discussion:
– Tassos Haniotis, Director of Strategy, Simplification and Policy Analysis, DG Agriculture, European Commission
– Thomas Waitz, MEP, Co-Chair, European Green Party
– Olivier de Schutter, Co-chair, International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food)
– Sarah Compson, IFOAM EU/Soil Association
– Sebastian Treyer, Executive Director, Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI)
Moderation: Eric Gall, Policy Manager/Deputy Director, IFOAM Organics Europe