TP Organics Newsletter SPECIAL IMPLEMENTATION ACTION PLAN. Dear members and stakeholders of TP Organics,

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1 TP Organics Newsletter SPECIAL IMPLEMENTATION ACTION PLAN Dear members and stakeholders of TP Organics, The Implementation Action Plan, which is now published and printed after an intensive consultation and expert work, is anticipating core issues, which are on the Agenda of European Union. It addresses the need for a broader concept of innovation, proposes concrete ideas for the 8 th framework programme and deals with new participatory concepts of knowledge management. The European Union emphasizes the importance of generating innovation to meet future challenges. Following the Lisbon Strategy and the renewed EU Sustainable Development Strategy of 2009, the European Commission launched the Europe 2020 Strategy for a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy. It aims to achieve a more competitive, efficient and greener economy, based on knowledge and innovations while fostering high employment and social and territorial cohesion. The Europe 2020 strategy highlights the building of a bio-economy (an economy based on renewable resources and ecological sensitivity in product and service provision, with highly developed green technologies) by 2020 as one of the deliverables under the flagship initiatives of the Innovation Union. In November 2010 the European Union launched in a communication the European Strategy and Action plan towards a sustainable bio-based economy by 2020, which is described in more detail in the newsletter. It is important that the organic sector actively participate in the consultation. For the time being, the EU Bio-Economy communication is too focused on the industrial use of biomass and agro-energy (bioenergy), neglecting the important role of agriculture in providing public goods. Agriculture is not only producing food, feed and fibre but also many services, such as ecosystem, social and even cultural services (mostly a co-product/service but occasionally even as main product/service). These services provide added value and have an important economic importance and potential for farm income and rural economies. Furthermore, a strong orientation of the production of cheap commodities for the industry has the risk that only large farms can profit, not sufficiently addressing the diversity and multi-functionality of European agriculture. Another challenge will concern the notion that if all efforts for eco-efficiency will not be reversed by the rebound effect, primarily that more efficiency will lead to even higher consumption of resources, the political framework will counteract this. There are other challenges and trade-offs (e.g. the competition between food and fuels) which are not addressed properly in the above mentioned communication. As TP Organics Strategic Research Agenda and Action Plan show, there is a need for agro-ecological system research, based on profound ecological, biological, physical and socio-economic knowledge instead of an one problem one technology solution approach, which is often in a short term perspective. The EC has acknowledged the importance of research and innovation in promoting eco-friendly production methods while addressing resource efficiency and climate change mitigation. Innovation does not simply mean new technologies: according to the EU innovation policy, eco-innovation is any innovation that benefits the environment - embracing technological innovation, process innovation and business innovation. The organic sector has generated a wide range of innovations and developed new ideas that have been put into practice on farms and in companies throughout the EU. Many organic farms and food businesses have become creative living laboratories for smart and green innovations, which are useful both within and outside the organic sector. The Action Plan lists a number of innovative examples of research in organic food and farming, demonstrating that innovation is not just limited to technological innovation, but also includes social innovation, management innovation and knowledge innovation. It will be an important future task for organic food and farming research to further develop participatory transdisciplinary approaches, where all the actors in the supply are already actively involved at an early stage, where a real impact is achieved - not just outputs in the form of reports (which few people actually read), workshops have a limited number of people, there is development of expanding learning networks and/or living labs, and a change in attitudes,

2 behaviours and practises. TP Organics will work towards such networks, in engaging further research institutions, SME s and organisations in their future activities, to ensure policy outcomes and sustainable positive impact for the organic food and farming sector. On behalf of the TP Organics Steering Committee I would like thank all who have contributed to this process and to the financial support and input to the Implementation Action Plan, in particular to Eduardo Cuoco (as coordinator) and Susanne Padel, which had the lead in this work. Otto Schmid Member of the TP Organics Steering Committee Content summary: Implementation Action Plan Sustainable Bio-Based Economy By 2020 TP Organics presents Action Plan out TP Organics is looking for supporters Implementation Action Plan In December 2010, TP Organics finalised its Implementation Action Plan. With its Implementation Action Plan, the Technology Platform for organic food and farming research, TP Organics completes its trilogy of key documents. Since its establishment in 2007, TP Organics has published a Research Vision 2025 (2008) and a Strategic Research Agenda, with concrete research priorities (2009). The Implementation Action Plan adds to these by addressing how to approach, carry out and follow up the research proposed for the best possible effect. It also takes the first steps towards outlining how organic sector research can contribute to Europe s progress during the period of the EC s 8 th Framework Programme. The Implementation Action Plan considered how innovation can be stimulated through organic food and farming research and, crucially, translated into changes in business and agricultural practice. TP Organics argues for a broad understanding of innovation that includes technology, know-how and social/organisational innovations. Accordingly, innovation can involve different actors throughout the food sector. The research topics proposed by TP Organics in the Strategic Research Agenda can drive innovation in areas as wide ranging as production practices for crops, technologies for livestock, food processing, quality management, on-farm renewable energy or insights into the effects of consumption of organic products on disease and wellbeing and life style of citizens. The action plan also addresses knowledge management in organic agriculture, focusing on the further development of participatory research methods. Participatory (or trans-disciplinary) models recognize the worth and importance of different forms of knowledge and reduced boundaries between the generators and the users of knowledge, while respecting and benefitting from transparent division of tasks. The document argues for the wider application of participatory methods in publicly-funded research and also proposes some criteria for evaluating participatory research, such as the involvement and satisfaction of stakeholders as well as real

3 improvements in sustainability and delivery of public goods/services. European agriculture faces specific challenges but at the same time Europe has a unique potential for the development of agro-ecology based solutions that must be supported through well focused research. TP Organics believes that the most effective approaches to agriculture and food research will be systems-based, multi- and trans-disciplinary, and that in the development of research priorities, the interconnections between biodiversity, dietary diversity, functional diversity and health must be taken into account. Finally the action plan identifies six themes which could be used to organize research and innovation activities in agriculture under Europe s 8 th Framework Programme on Research Cooperation: Eco-functional intensification A new area of agricultural research which aims to harness beneficial activities of the ecosystem to increase productivity in agriculture. The economics of high output / low input farming - Developing reliable economic and environmental assessments of new recycling, renewable-based and efficiency-boosting technologies for agriculture. Health care schemes for livestock - Shifting from therapeutics to livestock health care schemes based on good husbandry and disease prevention. Resilience and sustainability - Dealing with a more rapidly changing environment by focusing on adaptive capacity to help build resilience of farmers, farms and production methods. From farm diversity to food diversity and health and wellbeing of citizens - Building on existing initiatives to reconnect consumers and producers, using a whole food chain approach to improve availability of natural and authentic foods. Creating centres of innovation in farming communities - A network of centres in Europe applying and developing transdisciplinary and participatory scientific approaches to support innovation among farmers and SMEs and improving research capacities across Europe. The document will be presented in BioFach (Germany) on February 19 th at at Riga Room and copies of the publication will be distributed to all the participants. It is also possible to download the document from the TP Organics website: European Strategy and Action plan towards a sustainable bio-based economy by 2020 On September the Belgian Presidency held a high-level conference "Knowledge Based Bio-Economy towards 2020" which concluded that The Knowledge Based Bio-Economy will play a key role for the new EU 2020 strategy: it can provide new solutions for the food and energy crisis, for climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as for the conservation of biodiversity and the optimisation of the use of our natural resources. The bio-economy concept brings under one umbrella all sectors of the economy that produce and process biological resources from land and sea. It relies on research in bio-sciences, information technologies, robotics, and materials and aims to transform the knowledge and new technologies into agricultural, industrial and social innovation. In economic terms, the bio-economy is worth around two trillion Euros and provides more than 22 million jobs in Europe, across sectors as diverse as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, food, feed and chemicals. The bio-economy strategy and action plan will offer a framework for stronger coherence between various policies and funding instruments; and it aims to ensure the utilisation of the full potential of Europe s resources, knowledge and industrial capabilities in all of the bio-economy sectors, taking into account the needs of farmers, fishermen, industry and consumers, and society in general. The initiative is also of high relevance to CAP reform.

4 In February/March 2011 European Commission is going to launch a consultation in order to set an European Strategy towards a sustainable bio-based economy by 2020 The overall aim of the initiative is to optimize the beneficial impact of the bio-economy on economic growth, the environment and employment so as to increase the quality of life and well-being of European Citizens. It will anticipate and shape proactively the transition to a low carbon, renewable-based economy, maximizing the benefits to society. TP Organics will participate in the consultation, bringing its ideas to further develop the document. More details will be soon available on TP Organics website- TP Organics presents Action Plan out: On 19 th February 2011, TP Organics presents its Action Plan out. The presentation will take place at BIOFACH, from to at the RIGA ROOM with the following agenda: TP Organics Introduction - Marco Schlüter, IFOAM EU Director ; Eduardo Cuoco, TP Organics Coordinator Implementation Action Plan - Susanne Padel, TP Organics Scientific Coordinator Organic food and farming in the next Framework programme Urs Niggli, FiBL Director Organic Agriculture and (other) Bio-Economy - Otto Schmid, TP Organics Steering committee Questions End of presentation Do not hesitate to us for further details: info@tporganics.eu TP Organics is looking for supporters: Since its establishment TP Organics has been extremely successful: it can currently boast with a broad network of 20 European umbrella organisations, research institutes, national platforms, companies and civil society and is widely recognized among relevant EU officials, the European Commission and in the European Parliament. It is an observer at the ERA net Core Organic II and in contact with other trans-national research initiatives of member states. In October 2009 the platform achieved a major success! TP Organics convinced decision-makers to accept five of its proposals into the work programme in 2011, which was more than in all the work programmes since We hope that you are also interested in being involved in Consortia applications for these and future calls, and you therefore benefited from the activities of TP Organics and will benefit from it in the near future. Together with the scientists and members of the platform that have invested and engaged time, money and efforts during the last three years to build up the initiative, we are now looking for organisations to financially support the future work of TP Organics. Already a sponsorship/donation of a yearly amount between 1,000 to 5,000 Euros will make a significant difference. If you are interested, please contact the TP Secretariat which will provide you the provisional working programme for We trust that you will help to carry TP Organics successfully into the future! The Platform is financially supported by1 This newsletter is co-financed by the European Community, Directorate-General for the Environment. The sole responsibility for the communication/publication lies with the TP Organics. The TP Organics supporters are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information provided. TP Organics Newsletter is published and edited by TP Organics Editor: Eduardo Cuoco

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