The initiators of the business initiative (left to right): Jürgen Abraham, BVE; Albrecht Bartmer, DLG e.V.; Dr. Franz-Georg von Busse, OA; Dr. Bernd Eisenblätter, GIZ GmbH; Gerd Sonnleitner, DBV. Photo: Messe Berlin
Germany’s agriculture and food industry recently founded the association Global Forum for Food and Agriculture Berlin, reg. Ass. The association was presented in Berlin in mid-January.
During the last three years, the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) has been held in the context of the International Green Week in Berlin. Here, representatives of politics, business, science and civil society discuss global agricultural and food topics. Once a year, Germany’s agriculture and food industry organises the International Business Forum on the fringe of the GFFA. In order to underline their efforts to improve global food security, the organisers of the Business Forum – the Federation of German Food and Drink Industries (BVE), the German Farmers’ Association (DBV), the German Agricultural Society (DLG), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (OA) – founded the association Global Forum for Food and Agriculture Berlin, reg. Ass., in late December.
The world is facing the huge challenge to provide a growing global population with high-quality food in sufficient quantities, said the Chairman of the BVE, Jürgen Abraham, on presenting the new business initiative in Berlin. This required a sustainable increase in agricultural productivity in the fields and stables. This applied to the entire range of agricultural production, from conventional through integrated agriculture to organic farming. Only with this diversity could the enormous variety of habitat potentials and conditions be made use of appropriate to locations and productivity and agricultural production be sustainably raised.
At the Business Panel in Berlin, the President of the German Agricultural Society (DLG), Carl-Albrecht Bartmer, stressed that this new initiative by Germany’s agriculture and food industry was long overdue. Bartmer regards the association as an element of a mosaic in the attempts to achieve global food security. He maintains that the Business Initiative has set itself the goal of improving dialogue between business, politics and science in the field of agriculture and the food industry in order to develop holistic strategies for global food security and the sustainable use of natural resources.
Dr. Franz-Georg von Busse, Chairman of the Agribusiness Section of the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (OA), sees an important goal in now also increasingly providing experience gathered in co-operation with emerging economies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia over the last 20 years to the developing countries and emerging economies of the South.
According to Bernd Eisenblätter, Managing Director of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the organisation is going to contribute its experience in securing global food supply to the association and mobilise new potentials in its ranks. Eisenblätter believes that the new initiative could become the starting point for the creation of a “Green Davos”, where business, politics, science and civil society could discuss concepts for solutions for global food security. This also ought to evolve in close co-operation with the German Federal Government, i.e. with the two Ministries of Agriculture and Development Cooperation.
