GFFA 2025: fossil fuel – a thing of the past. Towards a sustainable, bio-based economy!

Our current economic system is largely dependent on fossil fuels. This is exacerbating the climate crisis and thus global food insecurity. Most experts agree that the future belongs to a bio-based economy, summed up as the "bioeconomy". In other words, an economy that is based on the use of renewable raw materials and which – if implemented correctly – not only protects the climate, environment and biodiversity, but can also create income prospects. But what factors make up a sustainable bioeconomy, and where are the stumbling blocks in its implementation? These questions were at the centre of the 17^th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA), which brought together 2,000 international representatives from politics, business, science and civil society in Berlin, Germany, in mid-January.

Subsidies point in the wrong direction

“We are coming together in Berlin because we know that the great challenges of our time – the climate crisis, species extinction, wars and conflicts – can only be solved together." With these words, Claudia Müller, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, opened the conference. Müller reminded the audience that half of global value creation was based on an intact environment – with biodiversity, healthy soil and clean water. Nevertheless, public subsidies totalling 1.7 trillion US dollars were used each year for an economic system that was destroying precisely these resources. “If we carry on like this, we will saw off the branch we are sitting on," she warned, and called for a shift towards an economy that better reconciles ecology and economy.

An opportunity for Africa in particular

“The bioeconomy can decisively change the economy,” said Julius Ecuru, Head of the BioInnovate Africa initiative and Co-Chair of the International Bioeconomy Council (IACGB), with conviction. It could make agriculture more sustainable and economical. For Africa in particular, which is characterised by small-scale subsistence farming and at the same time has enormous biodiversity, it offered great opportunities to establish sustainable value chains. The prerequisite for this was close cooperation between research, industry, government and the large number of micro and small enterprises on the continent.

Julius Ecuru, Head of the BioInnovate Africa initiative and Co-Chair of the International Bioeconomy Council (IACGB).
Photo: BMEL/ Photothek

For prosperity and peace

Éliane Ubalijoro, Managing Director of the Centre for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), demonstrated how a bio-based economy can not only promote prosperity, but also peace – for example in Uganda. This East African country is home to almost 1.5 million refugees, mainly from crisis countries such as South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi. “Circular bioeconomy solutions can help to reduce the social and economic pressure in the refugee settlements,” said Ubalijoro. As an example, she cited agroforestry systems in which the cultivation of vegetables in home gardens is combined with the planting of trees. This ensures both food and energy supplies for the refugees. Moreover, the wood from the trees can be used as a building material.

Food loss and waste as a central problem

Reducing food loss and waste is an important step towards a circular bioeconomy. Around a third of all food produced worldwide does not end up on consumers' plates, but in the rubbish bin. This wastes valuable resources such as soil and water, as well as labour and operating resources. In addition, food waste is responsible for around ten per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. This puts food loss and waste, when viewed as a “country”, in third place behind China (just under 28 % of emissions) and the USA (just under 14 %). “If we do not succeed in reducing food loss and waste, we will neither achieve our climate goals nor eliminate hunger in the world,” said Kaveh Zahedi, Head of the Office for Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) at the FAO High Level Panel.

The circular economy as a solution

This was also confirmed by the African Union (AU) Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Josefa Sacko. Food worth four billion US dollars was lost in sub-Saharan Africa each year. Inadequate storage and refrigeration facilities and a lack of processing facilities were largely to blame for this. The best way to reduce these losses was to move towards a circular economy. With financial support from the European Union, the AU has developed a corresponding strategy for the continent. However, in order to implement it, the countries must be given technical and financial support, the AU Commissioner demanded.

A plea for food sovereignty

“For us, managing food losses is a matter of survival,” emphasised Vitaliy Koval, Ukraine's Minister of Agricultural Policy and Food. The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine had destroyed storage capacities for millions of tonnes of grain in the country, as well as the largest storage facilities for vegetables. This had not only had a negative impact on the quality of food, but had also led to massive food price inflation. “All countries should work towards establishing a decentralised food storage and refrigeration infrastructure in order to ensure food sovereignty, prevent food prices from rising and thus protect their vulnerable population groups,” said Koval.

Vitaliy Koval, Ukraine's Minister of Agricultural Policy and Food.
Photo: BMEL/ Photothek

Research, innovation and knowledge sharing

Every country has different starting conditions and therefore also faces different challenges when it comes to advancing the bioeconomy and making it sustainable. The importance of research, innovation and knowledge exchange was emphasised more than once during the conference. “We are focusing on practical innovations that directly benefit farmers,” said Philippine Vice Minister of Agriculture Christopher V. Morales at the High Level Panel of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). The aim was to make agriculture more inclusive, intelligent, efficient and environmentally friendly. This applied in particular to the staple food rice, which is consumed per capita in the country of 116 million inhabitants at 120 kilograms per year. Morales cited water-saving, solar-powered irrigation systems and the use of drones as examples, as well as the breeding of high-yielding varieties and the “conversion of waste into value”, for example through the production of organic fertilisers from rice and coconut husks.

A multitude of technical solutions

Water-saving solutions, such as the use of recycled water, are also a crucial building block on the path to greater sustainability in food production for Europe's vegetable garden Spain, with its pronounced dry periods, according to its Agriculture Minister Luis Planas Puchades. In order to reduce the use of synthetic chemical pesticides and fertilisers, the country is testing various innovations, such as the use of algae as biostimulants. The South American country of Uruguay, for which beef is one of the most important export products, is in particular in need of technologies that can reduce methane emissions from cattle farming, according to Uruguay's Minister of Agriculture, Fernando Mattos Costa.

Soil rehabilitation is key

“As in many other African countries, in the past our main focus was on producing as much as possible. Now we are seeing the consequences of overexploiting our valuable resource soil, including through hazardous chemicals. We urgently need to invest in its rehabilitation," said South Africa's Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen. The restoration of degraded soils is also an issue that concerns Pedro Neto, Secretary of State in the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture. The causes are primarily to be found in overgrazing and massive deforestation. Since Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office again as president in January 2023, various laws have been introduced to curb illegal deforestation, including alternative income opportunities for poor population groups. Brazil has also launched a global bioeconomy initiative as part of its G20 presidency.

A comprehensive update of our food and agricultural systems

“One in ten people in the world still goes to bed hungry. Wars and conflicts act as an accelerant for hunger; hunger in turn stifles peace – a vicious cycle,” said Germany’s Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir at the end of the conference. The Minister sharply criticised the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. “Using hunger as a weapon is against international law,” he warned – also with regard to other crisis regions. In order to ensure secure harvests in the future, our agricultural and food systems needed a “comprehensive update”. In this context, Özdemir praised Brazil's bioeconomy initiative and welcomed the announcement by his South African counterpart that the path taken –- including the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty – would also be continued under South Africa's G20 presidency.

Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir at the handover of the Young Farmers' Forum's declaration.
Photo: BMEL/ Photothek

Corporate interests must not lever out smallholder rights

Furthermore, he promised to take the issues faced by young farmers seriously. In their declaration, they expressed their concern that the bioeconomy, which is being driven forward primarily by the industrialised countries, was reinforcing rather than eliminating existing inequalities in the countries of the Global South. They demanded that corporate interests should not be allowed to undermine the rights of small farmers and the local population – for example in terms of access to land and other resources.

The Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) has been organised as part of the International Green Week since 2009. The conference brings together experts from all over the world to find solutions to key challenges facing global agriculture and food and nutrition security.

Silvia Richter, editor, Rural 21