News Release

Europe and the global food crisis

Business Announcement

Helmholtz Association

Tim Benton and Polish Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki

image: Europe should play a central role in addressing the global food crisis, this is the consensus of an international consulting at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Professor Tim Benton of the University of Leeds (right) handed the Warsaw Declaration on Oct. 7, 2011, the Polish Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki (left). view more 

Credit: MINROL / PAN

This release is available in German.

Warszaw/Poland and Halle/Saale/Germany. In connection with the Polish Presidency of the EU a group of leading academics led by Prof Tim Benton, UK, met in the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, to make a consensus statement on Europe as a key player in global food security. The team from across Europe covered expertise in agriculture, economics, sociology, environment, ecology, conservation, water and food consumption. The statement was delivered to the Polish minister of agriculture and rural development on the 7th of October 2011 and is attached here.

Josef Settele of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ was part of the group, who agreed that food security and agriculture should play a central role in European policies. Guaranteeing global food security needs cross-sectoral approaches combining agricultural production, environment, health and socio-economics, following the principles of sustainable intensification.

"While biotechnology may play a role in global food security it is unlikely to be the main solution", the experts state. "Innovations and institutions concerning management of farming systems and agricultural landscapes in an environmentally sensitive way may well provide greater scope in addressing this issue globally."

The recently started research project LEGATO (http://www.legato-project.net/ ; http://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=21842), which is coordinated by Josef Settele and his team, was developed exactly along these lines and according to this philosophy. "There is convincing evidence that sustainable intensification really is a way to move forward – e.g. by using the so called 'ecological engineering' approach as done in LEGATO for irrigated rice production in South-East Asia" says Settele.

There also was consensus that the EU should maintain its productive agricultural land in order to meet future food demands, whether for the EU or the rest of the world.

###

More information available from:

PD Dr. Josef Settele
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ
E-mail: Josef.Settele@ufz.de
or
Tilo Arnhold (UFZ press office)
Phone: +49-341-235-1635
http://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=640

And from all the authors of the consensus document:
Prof Tim Benton (initiator and head of group), University of Leeds, United Kingdom (T.G.Benton@leeds.ac.uk)
Prof Jerzy Wilkin, University of Warsaw, Poland (wilkin@wne.uw.edu.pl)
Prof Jan Bengtsson, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden (Jan.Bengtsson@slu.se)
Dr Juan Antonio Rodriguez Diaz, University of Cordoba, Spain (ma2rodij@uco.es)
Prof Herve Guyomard, INRA, France (Herve.Guyomard@paris.inra.fr)
Dr Tibor Hartel, Mihai Eminescu Trust, Romania (hartel.tibor@gmail.com)
Dr John Kearney, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland (john.kearney@dit.ie)
Dr Iwona Nurzynska, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland

Links:

Homepage LEGATO: http://www.legato-project.net

Press Release on LEGATO: http://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=21842

Press release of Polish Ministry of Agriculture and rural Development (in Polish): http://www.minrol.gov.pl/pol/Ministerstwo/Biuro-Prasowe/Informacje-Prasowe/Europejscy-naukowcy-z-wizyta-u-ministra-M.-Sawickiego/

World Food Day: http://www.fao.org/getinvolved/worldfoodday/en/
http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/food/index.html


Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.