Moderated by Maria Furtwängler, this DLD Nature session brings together three panelists with very different backgrounds to discuss strategies for producing food for a growing global population while preserving the environment and biodiversity.
Matthias Berninger, a former Green Party politician, is now the head of Global Public Affairs and Sustainability at Bayer. He highlights the potential of technologies like gene editing to develop more sustainable crop systems.
This will reduce the need for fertilizers and pesticides, he argues, and is becoming more urgent due to climate change. In order to produce enough food on a hotter planet “we have to change everything in the food system”, Berninger says.
Jan Plagge is President of Bioland, Germany’s largest organic farming association, and head of Organics Europe. He converted his family farm to organic farming in 1993 and participated in the Strategic Dialogue on the future of EU agriculture, initiated by Ursula von der Leyen.
Plagge emphasizes the need for all actors, including consumers, to change their behavior and embrace sustainable practices.
Jan Gisbert Schultze, managing partner at Acton Capital, is an advocate for the circular economy and regenerative agriculture. Inspired by innovative farming practices, he founded the Soil Alliance and is developing a syntropic farm in Italy.
“There are estimates that you could capture fifty to a hundred percent of the carbon dioxide that we produce in a year, if we would turn systematically, all over the world, to regenerative agriculture”, Schultze observes.
Make sure to watch the video of this fascinating conversation for details.
