Review of events

The Spanish Presidency of the European Union put a spotlight on rural areas and agricultural resilience during a High-level Rural Policy Forum taking place in September 2023. Meanwhile, European and national policymakers, experts, and leading organisations of the organic seed sector gathered in Poznań (Poland) to discuss the roadmap to 100 % organic seed of adjusted cultivars in Poland and the European Union. This conference was organized by the European Union co-funded project LiveSeeding and its partners from Poland. The LiveSeeding project promotes the growth of organic seed and plant breeding for the transition to more sustainable local food systems.

Keywords: EU organic day, Farm2Fork, Green Deal, organic farming, organic seeds, organic plant breeding, organic heterogeneous material, organic varieties, EU organic regulation EU 2018/848, EU NGT regulation, EU seed law, Polish elections, Spanish Presidency of EU High-level Rural Policy Forum.

POZNÁN AND BRUSSELS, 4 OCTOBER 2023 – The 2^nd European Organic Seed Policy Conference took place on 29 September 2023 in Poznań, Poland. It provided an opportunity to share experiences among participants and discuss how to boost the organic seed and plant breeding sector in Poland and throughout Europe. While European legislation requires the use of organic seeds in organic agriculture, the lack of availability of organic seeds leads to the continued use of derogations for non-organic ones, slowing down progress in meeting this legislative goal. The European Commission has set the ambitious objective to completely phase out derogations by 2035.

“To reach 100 % organic seed use in organic farming, we need a six-fold increase in the production of organic seeds in the next 10 years. Such a massive increase will only be possible by joining forces,” says Dr. Monika Messmer, plant breeding expert at FiBL Switzerland. “Leading organisations across the sector are working together under the EU co-funded innovation project LiveSeeding to help overcome the practice of derogations and make organic seeds a reality everywhere in Europe”, she added.

Also, the European Commission has proposed a reform of the seed marketing legislation to harmonize and merge the various legislations and rules on seed production into one regulation. LiveSeeding project partners are working intensely on organic breeding and organic variety testing. On the basis of their scientific and market experience, LiveSeeding Consortium members welcome the draft seed legislation because 1) it provides testing of organic varieties under organic conditions in all Member States as well as room for flexibility for organic varieties registration; 2) it sets a broader definition of new and traditional conservation varieties, which will allow more genetic diversity on farms; 3) it allows in-kind exchange of seeds among farmers and; 4) it allows the commercialisation of heterogeneous material by simple notification.

Yet, the LiveSeeding Consortium is concerned about the fact that the introduction of vegetable and fruit VSCU (value for sustainable cultivation and use) testing could restrict and slow down market access of organic seeds. Under current legislation, VCU testing is compulsory only for arable crops. The current draft proposal would extend these additional tests to fruits and vegetables. This would result in additional costs, further delays in registration and slower uptake of organic seeds, which would hold back the organic sector.

Organic agriculture has been at the forefront of transitioning our agricultural systems to sustainable practices, which are resilient to adverse climate conditions, foster biodiversity and are beneficial for human and planetary health. The respect of the precautionary principle is paramount to maintaining consumers’ confidence.

While the European Commission’s proposal explicitly prohibits New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) from organic production, it does not provide a clear basis to protect GMO-free and organic production with co-existence measures nor to ensure a fair distribution of risks and burdens. 

“The Commission’s proposal to deregulate New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) does not support an evidence-based and systematic approach to agriculture and innovation. It is a distraction from the agroecological solutions needed to move agriculture towards sustainability,” according to Eric Gall, IFOAM Organics Europe deputy director. Also, “exempting certain NGTs from risk assessment, traceability and labelling would be a step backwards for biosafety and consumer information, and is unlikely to bring any benefit for sustainability. Therefore, we urge Member States and the European Parliament to maintain traceability for NGTs all along the production chain and to provide organic breeders, farmers and processors with the means to avoid the presence of NGTs in organic production”.

“The Seed Policy Conference provided a great opportunity for different stakeholders to define together the roadmap to 100 % organic seed in Poland,” says Dr Edward Gacek, honorary Director of COBORU, the Polish National Variety Office, adding, “We want to encourage organic farmers to buy high-quality seed of locally adapted varieties as this strengthens the organic sector in Poland”.

The 2^nd European Organic Seed Policy Conference took place after the LiveSeeding annual meeting. Sixty delegates from 37 partners convened in Poznań from 26 to 28 September 2023 to plan their future work. LiveSeeding is a 4-year innovation action co-funded by the Horizon Europe programme, Switzerland and the UK. With a budget of 6.6 million euros, the project aims to boost the organic sector by delivering high-quality seeds of a broad range of cultivars for a wide range of crops across Europe.

Media contacts

Mariano Iossa, LiveSeeding Project Coordinator, FiBL Europe, Rue de la Presse 4, 1000 Brussels, Belgium, Mobile +32 496 559872, E-mail [email protected] (EN, FR, ES)
Eva Berckmans, Communication Manager, IFOAM Organics Europe, Rue Marie Thérèse 11, 1000 Brussels, Belgium, Phone +32 2 280 12 23, E-mail [email protected] (EN)
Artur Paszkowski, Seed Specialist, PIN Polish Seed Trade Association, ul. Kochanowskiego 7/603, 60-845 Poznań, Poland, Mobile +48 501 854 616, E-mail [email protected] (PL, EN)

Background information

About LiveSeeding

LiveSeeding is a 4-year Innovation Action on organic seed and plant breeding to accelerate sustainable and diverse food systems in Europe, which started in October 2022. LiveSeeding provides science-based evidence and best practice solutions to help achieve 100 % organic seed. The project has a budget of 6.6 million Euro, funded by the European Union, the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). To deliver on such an ambitious goal, LiveSeeding brings together 37 organisations from a wide range of sectors operating in 16 European countries.

LiveSeeding contributes to the transition towards environmentally friendly, climate-neutral, healthy and fair food systems through a PUSH-PULL-ENABLE strategy to

• Enhance the availability and adequacy of organic seeds of cultivars appropriate to organic farming (PUSH),
• Increase and stabilise the market demand for organic seeds of cultivars appropriate to organic farming (PULL),
• Foster an enabling policy and regulatory environment where both demand and supply can harmoniously and productively negotiate without irrelevant constraints due to legal restrictions and/or regulatory fragmentation (ENABLE).

LiveSeeding works with a holistic multi-actor, multi-stakeholder, participatory approach involving stakeholders along the value chain in:

• 17 local Living Labs (LLs), where innovation will be co-generated involving the whole value chain, from breeders to consumers and citizens;
• 3 established networks of organic breeders (ECO-PB), seed savers (ECLLD), and Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP).
• 15 focus crops will be used within Living Labs in breeding, cultivar testing and seed production, namely: 4 cereals (wheat, rice, oat, maize) and 1 pseudo-cereal (buck-wheat), 1 oilseed crop (sunflower), 4 grain legumes (broad bean, lupin, beans and soybean), 4 vegetables (pepper, carrot, tomato and brassica) and 1 fodder crop (alfalfa).

These activities take place in 15 European countries covering different pedoclimatic zones and socio-economic contexts, including countries with a low level of development in organic seed and breeding in Eastern and Southern Europe.

To learn more about the project please follow us on: www.liveseeding.eu
https://twitter.com/LIVESEEDING
https://www.facebook.com/LIVESEEDING/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/liveseeding-project/

On 10 October, representatives of local and national governments attended ‘Promoting Social Innovation through public canteens’ where a class from the British Junior Academy handed the manifesto for establishing minimum standards for public canteens across the EU to Members of the European Parliament.

This manifesto advocates for healthy and sustainable school meals, and specifically wants to set a goal to reach 20% organic in public procurement. The signing organisations also advocate for food education in schools, so every child in Europe can re-connect with the origin of the food they eat and understand the importance of sustainable food systems.   

The organisations also advocated to implement food education in schools, so that every child in Europe can re-connect with the origin of the food they eat and understand the importance of sustainable food systems.   

Mrs. Joke Schauvliege, rapporteur on the Legislative Framework for Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) for the Natural Committee of the European Committee of Regions emphasized the central role of regions in the establishment of sustainable food systems. Tunç Soyer, Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, Türkiye & ICLEI Global Executive Committee Member presented Izmir’s agriculture and food program. By applying biogeography-based product planning, Izmir Agriculture identifies and promotes selected products identified as high market demand and economic value, but also produced through biodiversity friendly methods which makes them more drought resilient. Silvia Schmidt, policy manager at IFOAM Organics Europe concluded these introductory remarks by reminding the benefits of sustainable public procurement, including more organically sourced products, that are working for environmental sustainability but also from a social and economic point of view.

Following this, Peter Defranceschi, Head of ICLEI Brussels Office & Global CityFood Program presented the Manifesto‘s 7 and the petition A healthy school meal for every child in every school signed by more than 50,000 Europeans, calling on policymakers to ensure that every child, in every EU school, has access to a healthy, sustainably produced school lunch and that all pupils are taught about what constitutes a balanced diet to the Members of Parliament (MEPs) present: MEP Michaela Šojdrová and MEP Manuela Ripa.

For more information on sustainable public procurement and IFOAM Organics Europe’s work on this issue, please:

• Have a look at our infographics showing the benefits of sustainable public procurement (our members can contact us at [email protected] if they want to translate these),
• Visit our website, or
• Contact [email protected]. Do note that we prioritise our members’ requests.

For information about what you can gain from being a member, read our membership page and contact [email protected].

Buy Better Food

This event was co-organised by members of the Buy Better Food campaign. IFOAM Organics Europe co-leads the Buy Better Food – Sustainable food on the public plate campaign, which aims to raise awareness on sustainable public procurement of food in Europe. This campaign’s main objective is including mandatory criteria for public food procurement in the Sustainable food systems framework initiative, that will be published in 2023. To achieve its goal, this advocacy campaign will amplify good practices and challenges in public food procurement, demonstrating how it can contribute to sustainable, healthy and fair food systems the EU Farm to Fork Strategy and UN Sustainable Development Goals put forward.

Visit www.buybetterfood.eu to learn more and follow the coalition’s activities on Twitter and LinkedIn using @buy_betterfood.

With ambitious targets set for organic in the EU Farm to Fork (F2F) Strategy’s targets, it is crucial to build strong networks. Creating an environment in which research and innovation contribute to organic’s development, increasing and improving the coordination of translational funding is key. So, in the frame of the Horizon Europe project OrganicTargets4EU the CORE Organic Pleiades meeting took place 17-18 October in Brussels.

The project will expand the well-established Coordination of European Transnational Research in Organic Food and Farming Systems (CORE Organic) network, inviting European public and private funding bodies from all Member States to join CORE Organic Pleiades’ network.

Painting the bigger picture of RnI networks

With around 30 participants, the first annual meeting of CORE Organic Pleiades provided an opportunity for old and new network partners to meet and discuss the objectives of the networks. Together, they made the first steps to develop a 2030 roadmap and towards the EU’s organic targets. This was a preparation for the first translational call of the CORE Organic Pleiades network – which will be launched after the end of the project.

Project Manager and organiser Ivana Trkulja, from International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems (ICROFS), presented the transnational network, its history and the successor to CORE Organic Pleiades. They did all this linking to the new Agroecology Partnership of which its Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda strongly references organic.

Results of national Organic Action Plans assessment

Nic Lampkin from the Thünen Institute presented his work within OrganicTarget4EU and first results on of his Organic Action Plans (OAPs) assessment. He explained that the OAPs have the potential to unite different policies but need to integrate both supply-push and demand-pull measures – stressing that organic delivers both public goods and market potential.

Nic also stated the need for CAP funding and institutional changes to support conversion to and maintenance of organic farming, just like research, innovation, data, and the integration of external costs (True Cost Accounting). The full assessment report of agricultural and aquaculture policy responses to the organic targets in the F2F targets will be published soon on the project website.

Panel debate & workshops

Henri Delanghe and Susana Gaona Saez from the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) joined the annual meeting online for the panel debate. According to Susana Goana Saez, the Agroecology Partnership will be an important tool to achieve the EU Farm to Fork targets. Nic Lampkin recalled the organic principles, including system redesign, and stressed that they should remain at the heart of what comes next.

Throughout the day, participants engaged in workshops on national organic action plans (OAPs), mapping and clustering research priorities to identify overlaps, research gaps and temporalities. Among the common themes in the national OAPs were: knowledge transfer/exchange and capacity building, along with cross-cutting thematic research areas and the importance of partnership (among research institutions and private-public partnerships).

The workshop’s results will feed into the CORE Organic Roadmap 2030, which will guide the future activities of the CORE Organic Pleiades network.

Ivana Trkulja closed the meeting, announcing that the network will celebrate its 20^th anniversary in 2024. It will hold its next annual meeting at TP Organics’ annual Organic Innovation Days on 22-23 October 2024 at the “Organic House” in Brussels (IFOAM Organics Europe, Rue Marie-Thérèse 11). Save the date!

Presentations and pictures of the workshop outcomes are available on CORE Organic Pleiades’ website.

CORE Organic

CORE Organic is the acronym for “Coordination of European Transnational Research in Organic Food and Farming Systems”. As an ERA-NET action, it intends to increase cooperation between national research activities. European public research and development in organic food and farming happens in small research communities, often scattered and geographically and institutionally fragmented. CORE Organic will enhance quality, relevance and resources use in European research in organic food and farming and establish a joint pool for financing transnational research in organic food and farming.

OrganicTargets4EU

The Horizon Europe project OrganicTargets4EU (2022-2026) aims to help reach 25% of agricultural land under organic farming and a significant increase in organic aquaculture by 2030. IFOAM Organics Europe leads this project which is working on outcomes that will drive the growth and development of the organic sector focussing on policy implementation, evidence-based decision making, increased and coordinated Research & Innovation and increased knowledge sharing. The project results will be discussed in a multi-actor policy dialogue and it will make recommendations for the CAP strategic plans and EU/national organic action plans from 2025-2027 and from 2028 onwards.

 Visit the project website for more information and follow its hashtag #OrganicTargets4EU on LinkedIn and X or contact [email protected].

TP Organics’ annual Organic Innovation Days – the only EU event on organic and agroecological research and innovation – took place in Brussels 25-26 October titled ‘Citizen-driven transformation of European food systems’. For the 2023 edition, TP Organics partnered with FoodSHIFT 2030, a Horizon 2020 project focused on transforming the European food system towards a low-carbon, circular future, including a shift to less meat and more plant-based diets.

Day 1: Safeguarding long-term food security

Day 1 of the Organic Innovation Days 2023 focused on research and innovation (R&I) to guarantee long-term food security in Europe and globally, which depends on healthy soils and ecosystems. IFOAM Organics Europe Director and TP Organics Head of Secretariat Eduardo Cuoco kicked off the event by introducing TP Organics: the European Technology Platform is advocating for organic and agroecological R&I, providing brokerage services for members as well as information about funding opportunities, and promoting knowledge exchange. Still this year, TP Organics will start a Strategic R&I Agenda (SRIA) process. The first official workshop to identify future R&I needs and priorities will take place at the TP Organics Science Day at BIOFACH 2024. Get involved, contact [email protected]!

First key-note speaker, longstanding expert John Ingram, Food Systems Programme Leader, Environmental Change Institute, Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow, Somerville College, and Visiting Scholar, University of Oxford presented the complex, dire and inequal situation of food security. He recalled the environmental, social and health costs of the current system and the need to also consider ethics and moral aspects. Extending the current food system’s technologies is not a solution; we need a real transformation of the food system’s outcomes (socioeconomic, food security and environmental). A dynamic food system responds to different external signals and needs to constantly assess policies.

Next, Kirsten Arp, Project Lead at BÖLW presented the model project HumusKlimaNetz, coordinated by German Association of Organic Farmers, Processors and Traders (BÖLW) and German Farmers’ Association and scientifically supported by TP Organics Member Thünen Institute. This first large-scale project setting ambitious climate targets for agriculture and a collaboration between organic and conventional farmers aims to build up and maintain humus to sequester carbon and ensure climate-resilient agriculture. For this, the project has set up a network of 150 farmers to transfer knowledge, generate recommendations for agriculture and climate policy development. Building up soil organic matter, as pioneered by organic farmers, is key for climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as food security.

High-level policy debate

During the high-level policy debate, Orsolya Frizon-Somogyi, Deputy Head of Unit, Research & Innovation at DG AGRI, European Commission highlighted that the Commission links R&I with the EU Organic Action Plan and also builds bridges between Horizon Europe, specifically the Soil Mission with an important budget dedicated to soil health, and the CAP. Farmers are in the centre of Soil Mission and supported R&I and sustainable practices, which relate to organic and agroecology. Citizen engagement, regions, education, and training are key. Living labs are at the heart of the mission and the new Agroecology Partnership. Sign the Soil Mission Manifesto uniting policymakers, stakeholders and citizens in a community caring for soil health as citizen or organisation!

Jorge Molina Villanueva, Policy Officer at DG RTD, European Commission pointed out that research & innovation funded under Horizon Europe Cluster 6 is key to develop solutions for the food systems transition. The Food 2030 priorities and pathways for action take a systemic approach generating co-benefits.

Nicole Pita, Project Manager at IPES-Food pointed out that the problem is not a lack of knowledge about agroecology as a systemic innovation and solution but a lack of policy support and funding! The prevailing short-term, narrow, and misleading “feed the world” narrative and corporate concentration prevent holistic change. Agroecology is well defined by the 10 FAO elements and the 13 principles of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE), contrary to regenerative agriculture for example. Yet, it is side-lined in the policy debate because there is no common understanding across different countries and because it threatens the current agro-industrial model. IPES-Food recommends focussing R&I on systemic solutions, longer-term research projects helping farmers to transition to agroecology, and shifting to bottom-up knowledge exchange. The Agroecology Coalition already has lots of country and organisation members and will hopefully take up the task of a communication campaign.

Luca Colombo, Secretary General, FIRAB and TP Organics Advisory Board Member highlighted the completely different condition and situation we are in today, whereas the public discourse is still 50 years back. With the HLPE Committee on World Food Security (CFS), sustainability and agency entered the discussion about food security. Food system actors should have a say in governments and decision-making processes at all policy levels. This is crucial to ensure a long-term perspective, especially on old and new GMOs, and an inclusive transition.

Conclusions of Day 1

• Food security is more than production,
• It is urgent to transform food and farming, both bottom up and top down,
• Funding for R&I for organic and other agroecological practices is crucial.

Read TP Organics’ policy brief on organic and sustainable food security. 

Day 2: FoodSHIFT 2030 Final Policy Conference

Day 2 of the Organic Innovation Days 2023 was dedicated to the FoodSHIFT 2030 Final Policy Conference. Eduardo Cuoco, in his role as Director of IFOAM Organics Europe, partner in this project on citizen-driven transformation of the European food system, welcomed the participants and project partners. FoodSHIFT 2030 is working “from farm to citizen”: The EU Farm to Fork strategy is telling us that our food system must change. All actors are needed. Policymakers should engage the people. Citizen empowerment, urban-rural cohesion, lasting positive impact on food system sustainability beyond the project are achieved through a framework for organising living labs, mechanisms for accelerating innovation, and a methodology for knowledge sharing. Driven by food accelerator labs (FALs) based in 9 cities that acted as multipliers and established Food Enabler Labs (FELs) in neighbouring cities, the project also published a Food Manifesto for establishing minimum standards for public canteens in the EU.

Karen Fabbri, Deputy Head of Unit, Bioeconomy & Food Systems, DG RTD, European Commission introduced the Food 2030 pathways deployed in Horizon Europe and now being updated with a new pathway on zero pollution. Project coordinator Christian B. Henriksen presented key project achievements. FoodSHIFT 2030 took a truly systemic, multi-actor approach to food systems transformation and developed a scoring system for city regions based on the SDGs, as well as guidelines for food policy councils. Organic is central to the Farm to Fork strategy. We need to bring forward the systemic approach of FoodSHIFT 2030 involving all stakeholders. FoodSHIFT is part of the Food 2030 network. The living labs address all Food 2030 pathways and need long-term support (see FoodSHIFT policy brief). Dirk Wascher added that FoodSHIFT 2030 living labs all increased their “innovation readiness level”, going beyond technology readiness levels (TRL). The policy brief also includes recommendations and guidelines. Sustainable food systems must be integrated in CAP reforms. We need circular economic models.

Panel discussions

Silvia Schmidt, Policy Manager at IFOAM Organics Europe, moderated the first, female panel on transition governance: we need to understand the different powers, from local to global level as well as from citizens to companies and connect with places people can identify with. Alexandra Nikolakopoulou from DG SANTE pointed out that cities have a very important role to play and we need to keep in mind the long-term aspect of solutions. To reach significant progress, we need to do things differently and challenge the status quo. There is polarisation in some of the proposals of the European Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategy. We need to be vocal and show the benefits of the proposals as enablers of the transformation.

The second panel highlighted the need to connect policies and practices. The basis of citizen engagement is collective thinking. People need space and time to be a proactive part of the transition. Localised approaches with the community and showcases like maker spaces and fab labs are key, is a paradigm shift from consumers to food citizens, reinvigorating the public sphere. Food connects. Thinking collectively about public concerns like shifting to plant-based diets can be empowering.

The next panel was dedicated to organic versus plant-based food. Kurt Sannen, organic farmer, researcher, and chair of the IFOAM Organics Europe Farmers Interest Group pointed out that animals have their role in the agroecological systems we need to transition to, calling for less and better meat to stay within the planetary boundaries. “It’s not the cow but the how!” Farmers need a fair price, but powerful multinationals push costs to future generations. Kurt called for true cost accounting and “public money for public goods” instead of direct payments, which is also a key demand from IFOAM Organics Europe. Government has a major role in changing the organisation of our food system. Elena Walden from Good Food Institute called for public policy support, especially R&I funding for agroecology, and pointed out the negative global impacts generated by our industrial European food system. We are offshoring the problems and externalities of our food systems to other countries! Christian B. Henriksen stressed the need for a holistic approach and for plant-based advocacy (NGOs, movements etc.) to commit to and emphasise organic to be truly sustainable.

The last panel on linking city regions and living labs to policies and moving from low-hanging fruits to long-term food system transformation. Daniela Lueth from DG RTD highlighted the Horizon Europe Partnerships like the Sustainable Food Systems Partnership FutureFoods which are intended to scale and speed up deployment of solutions. Christian B. Henriksen concluded:

• We must overcome the polarisation between sustainable food and farming and food security.
• We need to talk to the hearts and emotions of people to ensure inclusivity of the transformation.
• Food policy debates at city region level are key.

Save the date for the next Organic Innovation Days 22-23 October 2024 (TBC) at the “Organic House” (IFOAM Organics Europe office, Rue Marie-Thérèse 11).

Co-organised by IFOAM Organics Europe and Ecovalia, the 2023 European Organic Congress brought together key EU and Spanish policymakers in organic. At this year’s edition of our annual Congress, more than 350 participants from all over Europe and beyond gathered in the picturesque city of Córdoba, a city in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia.

During this year’s sunny congress in Córdoba participants learned from and discussedthis year’s Congress’ theme:Organic innovating sustainable food systems – Challenges for organic: producers, market, consumption & innovation.

Day 1: Zooming out for Bigger Vision

The first day of the Congress focused on the challenges and opportunities facing organic production – supply chain fairness, empowerment of new generations, and organic farming promotion at EU and national level. Speakers exchanged on how to transition to sustainable food systems, prioritised in the Farm to Fork Strategy.

Recent (geo)political circumstances showed the flaws of our food system, such as high dependency on costly and energy-intensive inputs like synthetic pesticides and fertilisers. Many speakers concluded that strong policy and political support are key to ensure the transition and the opportunities organic offers for this.

“Member States & regions are those best placed to implement support for organic. Bringing them together with stakeholders along the supply chain will help develop the sector and promote and protect the organic logo”, states Joanna Stawowy, Member of Cabinet of the European Commissioner for Agriculture.

New geopolitical circumstances have revealed the flaws of the food system, and it was concluded that strong policy and political support are key to ensuring the transition and the prominent role of organic therein.

Day 2: “To-do” list for ever-approaching 2030

Raffaele Zanoli, Professor of Agro-Food Marketing, opened the second day of our Congress with findings from the OrganicTargets4EU project. Raffaele presented four scenarios to reach 25% organic, stressing that organic is a system solution to cover the climate and biodiversity crises and that the 25% organic land target should not be reached by lowering organic principles.

On their agenda were topics such as:

Following the, the Congress participants discussed a variety of topics in different break-out sessions. Based on their professional background and interests, they discussed topics from trends in international organic markets to research and innovation opportunities and from challenges in organic certification and to carbon farming.

The final session of day two zoomed in on one of the pillars to achieve our vision for 2020: organic on every table. Speakers from many different practical backgrounds shared their projects, innovations and experiences. Their shared feeling was that it is crucial to recognize the importance of restaurants, collective catering, and public procurement, like school meals, for securing new markets for organic producers.

Speakers’ presentations of both days are available on the European Organic Congress’ website.

Day 3: Excursion to experience an organic olive farm

On the last day, participants who wished to see a local farm visited Cortijo el Puerto, an organic olive grove and an organic mill in Sevilla, where they saw the entire organic oil production chain.The farm stands out as it invested a lot in biodiversity and ICT use. There is a bioclimatic building on the farm and it practices water management carried both on the farm and in the processing facilities, ensuring efficient wate use, an extremely important resource, especially in semi-arid zones.

Stay up to date about the next edition of our Congress on www.europeanorganiccongress.bio and/or social media using #EOC2024.

The annual Let’s Liberate Diversity Forum has established itself as an important event for those passionate about seeds and agrobiodiversity. At this year’s edition, knowledge, experience, and expertise converged and was added by the LiveSeeding project partners. The project was on the Forum’s agenda and LiveSeeding partners engage with a diverse audience through a series of workshops, such as a “Training of Trainers” workshop, building targeted capacity on at seed legislation, particularly the implications of seed law marketing reform on the organic sector, organized by Kybele Consultancy and IFOAM Organics Europe.  Participants’ inputs the Forum’s contributed to various work packages of the project.

The Forum programme was rich and diverse, featuring 15 workshops and plenary sessions covering a wide array of topics, ranging from key issues on policy and legislations, including New Breeding Techniques (NBTs), the critical aspects of Seed Marketing Reform, and Farmers’ Rights, to sessions dedicated to Culinary Breeding and Seed Quality. It was another significant step towards cultivating a more diverse and resilient food system, empowering a wide variety of stakeholders and we look forward to the continued efforts and progress in this vital field.

The European Coordination Let’s Liberate Diversity! (EC-LLD!) organises the Forum every year. Its 12^th edition was hosted by Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, in collaboration with the Irish Seed Savers Association (ISSA).

LiveSeeding is a 4-year Innovation Action on organic seed and plant breeding to accelerate sustainable and diverse food systems in Europe, which started in October 2022. It provides science-based evidence and best practice solutions to help achieve 100 % organic seed. The project has a budget of 6.6 million Euro, funded by the European Union, the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). To deliver on such an ambitious goal, LiveSeeding brings together 37 organisations from a wide range of sectors operating in 16 European countries.

Learn more about and follow the project on www.liveseeding.eu, LinkedIn, X and Facebook.

More than 60 participants, representing research teams from national or regional universities and technology institutes, development agencies, cooperatives, SMEs, and rural networks, met at the premises of the University of Bonn for the second annual meeting of IntercropVALUES.

The IntercropVALUES project aims to exploit the advantages of intercropping to design and manage productive, diversified, resilient, profitable, and environmentally friendly cropping systems that are acceptable to farmers and agri-food chain actors. This ambitious objective involves the development of 13 co-innovation case studies from the EU (9), UK (1), Serbia (1), Switzerland (1) and Mozambique (1). The members of the so-called CICS, representing both conventional and organic farming, as well as short and long value chains, have set their own objectives and agenda during this first year.

After the participatory project’s first year of activities, participants shared their first results and the planned activities for the coming year.

• Identifying the blockages to intercropping,
• Describing, and measuring the ecosystem services of intercropping,
• Integrating modelling tasks into the overall research project to address partners’ research questions, and
• A workshop on writing strong policy briefs.

All participants agreed that, nowadays, researchers are asked to explain society and policymakers the knowledge derived from their experiments in a comprehensive way – which is key if project members are to have a real impact.

The IntercropVALUES project aims to exploit the advantages of intercropping to design and manage productive, diversified, resilient, profitable, and environmentally friendly cropping systems that are acceptable to farmers and agri-food chain actors. This ambitious objective involves the development of 13 co-innovation case studies from the EU (9), UK (1), Serbia (1), Switzerland (1) and Mozambique (1). The members of the so-called CICS, representing both conventional and organic farming, as well as short and long value chains, have set their own objectives and agenda during this first year.

IntercropValuES is a multi-disciplinary and multi-actor project, bringing together scientists and local actor of the agri-food chain. 27 participants, 15 countries and 3 continents from a wide diversity of organisations and stakeholders. IFOAM Organics Europe represents the organic movement.

Follow the project on www.intercropvalues.eu, X, Facebook & LinkedIn and learn about intercropping and the IntercropVALUES project.

On 8^th November, our staff members took part to Good Food Good Farming’s protest in front of the EU Parliament. When the Commission published its EU Farm to Fork Strategy, civil society and NGOs had high hopes for a transformation of our food and farming systems. But the EU is not living up to its promises.

Under the slogan “We can’t eat promises”, protesters called on EU decision makers to step up their ambition after the 2024 elections and stops its support to the pesticides industry. It is urgent for decisionmakers to deliver ambitious policies to fix our broken food system.

The Good Food Good Farming movement also called on people across Europe to write their demands for better food systems on postcards. They handed over more than 600 post cards to Member of the European Parliament during the protest action, conveying people’s messages to act now for a real change toward agroecological systems, give up the focus on industrial foods produced with pesticides, GMOs, etc.

Following their protest in front of the European Parliament, protesters continued on to BASF’s offices, show that citizens and farmers are fed up with pesticides and want another system.

The alliance Good Food Good Farming (GFGF) campaigns for sustainable food and farming across Europe. Since 2023 it focuses on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation (SUR) and the Sustainable Food Systems law (SFS). The campaign organises annual European Days of Action 1-31 October. Are you interested to learn more or take part? Subscribe to the GFGF newsletter or find your national contact for the Good Food Good Farming alliance.

Held on 30 November, in Brussels, Belgium, the IFOAM Organics Europe Meets Business proved to be a key gathering for stakeholders in the organic supply chain. Organized by IFOAM Organics Europe, the event aimed to foster collaboration and exchange ideas among industry players, offering a platform to delve into past trends and issues in the organic sector.

• Participants had the chance to connect with fellow industry professionals, exchange ideas, and build collaborations that could propel the organic supply chain forward.
• Beyond taking a look at the current political agenda and several regulatory topics, the audience received an update and saw that many organic markets within the EU have experienced growth in the past year in value. 
• We saw challenges through the eyes of two engaged and dedicated companies with different profiles to target consumers, but we learned that there are several reasons why to choose organic – buyers are more concerned than ever about their choices regarding health, environmental and climate aspects for which they find organic as the right answer.   

To enhance the overall experience, attendees were invited to join the event-related networking dinner for further discussions and relationship-building.  

We would like to thank all participants for joining the event and sharing their experiences and best practices for the development of organic farming! We are particularly grateful to our speakers for promoting and raising awareness on the latest updates in the key topics of organic commercial landscape:

• Alexander Beck  – Member of Interest Group of Organic Processors & Traders, IFOAM Organics Europe / Managing Board Member, AÖL
• Danila Brunner – Director, Biofach
• Massimo Fileni – Vice President, Fileni Alimentare Spa
• Lee Holdstock – Senior Business & Trade Development Manager, Soil Association 
• Johanna Stumpner – Vice Chair of Interest Group of Organic Processors & Traders, IFOAM Organics Europe / Regulatory and International Affairs, AÖL 
• Sophie Pagnon – Chief Communication, Marketing & Impact Officer, Ecoveritas
• Roberto Pinton –  Member of Interest Group of Organic Processors & Traders, IFOAM Organics Europe / Director, Pinton Organic Consulting
• Sabine von Wirén–Lehr – Government Relations and Public Affairs Expert, Wirén-Lehr Consulting
• Jan Wicher Krol – Chair of Interest Group on Organic Certification & Integrity, IFOAM Organics Europe / Policy Advisor, SKAL Bio Controle

Together, we have made IFOAM Organics Europe Meets Business 2023 a success!

The annual IFOAM Organics Europe Meets Business event is a chance to connect with industry leaders and contribute to the growth and sustainability of the organic supply chain to achieve the final mission “Making Europe More Organic”!

Right before the EU’s annual Agricultural Outlook conference, TP Organics held its event EU-international cooperation in research & innovation to transform agri-food systems showing why more research funding is needed for agricultural research and innovation.

This event showed that organic and other agroecological practices should be high on the EU’s agenda as they represent a key path to improving livelihoods, soil health, and climate adaptation. Investing in research and innovation (R&I) that benefits farmers in developing countries is key to the EU’s response to global challenges affecting it.

The event featured presentations of the findings of two ongoing Horizon 2020-funded agroecological R&I cooperation projects in Europe and the Mediterranean-African region.

UPSCALE wants to realise the transformative potential of push-pull technology in the sub-Saharan region of East Africa by fostering the design, adaptation, and adoption of strategies for integrated agroecological management. Leibniz University Hannover coordinates this project.

The other project, IntercropVALUES, explores the benefits of intercropping to design and manage productive, diversified, resilient, profitable, environmentally friendly cropping systems acceptable to farmers and actors in the agri-food chain. As a multi-disciplinary and multi-actor project, it brings together scientists and local actors representing the food value chain. It includes 27 participants from 15 countries (3 continents) from a wide diversity of organisations and stakeholders, and case studies also outside of Europe, such as in Mozambique and La Reunion.

Besides the project findings, the event also included a high-level panel debate on the policy framework and priorities for R&I cooperation in agriculture. The debate focused on Africa-EU cooperation, bringing together representatives from the European Commission, the Africa-EU Partnership and PRIMA, the Partnership for R&I in the Mediterranean Area, and TP Organics. During the debate, the panel exchanged on priorities for EU R&I investments to help meet the partnership’s objectives and to enable the EU to respond to global challenges of climate change and long-term food security (including agricultural productivity) which are affecting both Africa and the EU.

The event took place in the framework of the Food 2030 Conference (organised by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation) and the EU Agri-Food Days (organised by Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development). It received support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to show why more research funding is needed for agricultural R&D in both Europe and Africa and to provide input for the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025-27 (Cluster 6 and Soil Mission).

TP Organics is the European Technology Platform for Research & Innovation into Organics and Agroecology. IFOAM Organics Europe is a founding member and hosts its secretariat. Visit www.tporganics.eu for more information and follow its Twitter and LinkedIn @TPorganics.

On 7 December, more than 88 participants attended our webinar Weed control in organic farming – value and risks of different no-till and mechanical weeding techniques. Are you a farmer, an organic (farming) enthusiast or this webinar simply sounds interesting to you?

The first speaker presented different mechanical techniques such as interrow hoeing, weed harrowing, flame-weeding and beach cleaner, as well as some more advanced automated AI-based weeding options. Bo Melander is a Professor at Aarhus University in Denmark experienced in physical, preventive, and cultural weed management in organic and conventional cropping systems. He referred to his research and showed participants the benefits of different treatment combinations when applied to different crops.

Our second speaker, a passionate organic farmer, gave a masterclass of do’s and don’ts when using high precision weed control treatments. As founder of the Organic Centre in central Poland Bart Piskorski aims to support both organic and sustainable farms with knowledge and practice.

This webinar was part of the EU-funded project IPMWORKS. It promotes the adoption of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies, based on a EU-wide network of farmers, who will both progress further in the adoption of IPM – through peer-to-peer learning and joint efforts – and demonstrate to other farmers holistic IPM approaches. IFOAM Organics Europe is a partner in the project.

You can follow @H2020IPMWorks on Twitter, LinkedIn & YouTube to stay tuned.