• • • Growing the Future Together
Plant breeding innovation is essential to contribute to a sustainable agriculture production that fosters food security and healthy nutrition. This is one of the key messages by the High-level Conference on Plant Breeding Innovation “Growing the Future Together” hold by Copa-Cogeca and Euroseeds in Brussels.
The event, organised under the auspices of the Finnish Presidency of the Council, outlined the challenges and opportunities for plant breeding innovation in the EU and provided an occasion for an open and constructive dialogue on the potential such innovations hold for sustainable farming, healthier and more nutritious food production, and environmental performance.
In his opening address, Council President Jari Leppä underlined that “new plant breeding techniques can give us plants that more quickly adapt to a changing climate” and expressed his hope that the Commission’s Green Deal programme “will also take into account the first link in the food chain as the plant breeding is”.
“Europe should embrace plant breeding innovation and make sure it does not fall behind the rest of the world in terms of development of new plants and the societal and environmental benefits they can bring. The broad interest and participation to this event demonstrated the urgency of the call to the European Institutions to take appropriate action as quickly as possible,” stated Garlich von Essen, Secretary General of Euroseeds.
