The Conference "Sustainable food chains for a European Strategy and Action plan towards a sustainable knowledge-based bio-economy by 2020" was held in June 2011.
Urs Niggli, Steering Committee of TP Organics, stated: "Bio-economy at the moment appears as a "gold rush" for the unlimited use of natural resources – but a responsible bio-economy must initially address the sustainable use of resources. Farmers should not be commodity producers but producers of quality food and managers of the eco-system. We should move from technological innovation to clever innovation! We need integrated, comprehensive and sustainable approaches towards innovation; moreover we need partnerships to work out future systems of natural resource use that involve a broad range of civil society, including farmers, scientists, SMEs and consumers."
The conference concluded that four main future actions are needed to make the EU initiative for a "Knowledge Based Bio-Economy" a contribution to sustainable development in the EU:
- Focus on comprehensive and sustainable production, retailing and consumption systems and not on single technologies.
- Target the delivery of social benefits and public goods to meet pressing social and environmental challenges; the wider development and application of agro-ecological knowledge through innovation can significantly contribute to this objective. Therefore, the EU must invest in maintenance and further development of the organic farming concept and standard.
- All innovative potential of the whole agriculture and food sector must be captured to contribute to innovation. The potential of farmers and SMEs to contribute innovation and knowledge in the food and farming sector must be fully recognised.
- Creation of transparent relationships between producers and consumers.
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