ORC researchers Susanne Padel and Bruce Pearce attended the Organic Days (24-26 September) in Cyprus, a joint event of the IFOAM EU Group, the Cyprus government EU presidency and the European Commission. The event was structured around one excursion and two conference days.
The first conference day was organised by the Commission with the theme of ‘Organic and Low-input agriculture: Implementing Innovation to respond to the EU Challenges’. Presentations covered many EU research projects that have been carried out in the last 20 years (including SOLIBAM and OrganicDataNetwork where ORC is involved). A volume (External PDF 4.5MB) summarising all the projects was launched at the event by the EU Commission’s DG Research and Innovation.
Susanne Padel made a presentation (PDF 920KB) attached on the importance of knowledge and stakeholder involvement. Inge van Oost from the Commission explained the thinking behind the European Innovation Partnership. The day showed that the organic research community has maintained capacity in areas that were of low priority in the last 20 years, but are now seen to be of a high strategic relevance, such as the concept of eco-functional intensification. However, research agendas should not only be driven by “buzzwords”, such as the bio-economy.
The second day, organised by the IFOAM EU Group, focussed on meeting the climate change challenge, the consequences of which are already a very visible reality in Cyprus.
The presentations of this interesting conference are now available.
