In preparation of the 2014 Camden Conference, Maine, USA, EISA President Patrick Wrixon participates in the “Linking farming and environment” panel discussion in Maine on 12 October / EISA participation in the launch event of the US sustainability initiative “This is how we grow” at ANUGA food fair in Cologne, Germany,
on 6 October. Read more…

Sustainable agriculture and Integrated Farming – more up-to-date information and publications now available on the new EISA website. Read more…

Dr. Anton Kraus, general manager of FNL and chairman of the EISA Executive Committee, welcomes visitors of the EventFarm mobile together with mascot Else

After three years of touring German cities, the FNL EventFam mobile has presented modern sustainable agriculture outside of Germany for the first time – at the Foire Agricole in Ettelbrück, Luxembourg. Read more…

Biodiversity in orchards – one topic of the EISA Farm Visit on the Peeters Farm in Huldenberg

EISA’s annual Farm Visits, held on 25 June 2013 in Belgium, allowed participants to experience modern sustainable agriculture in practice. read more…

New EISA Board and new Chairman of the Executive Committee take over

Patrick Wrixon, newly elected EISA President

EISA (Brussels): Together with the French wine-grower Sylviane Martin-Pierrat and the German farmer Heinrich Kemper as Vice-Presidents and Nico Kass, a farmer from Luxemburg as Treasurer, Patrick Wrixon (UK) has been elected as member of the Board and as President of EISA. At the same time, Dr. Anton Kraus, General Manager of the national EISA member from Germany, FNL, has taken over as chairman of the EISA Executive Committee from his predecessor Dr. Gibfried Schenk.

The new EISA President Patrick Wrixon follows Tony Worth who has successfully chaired EISA for the last five years. Patrick runs a mixed sheep and arable farm in the Welsh Marches. As a graduate in agriculture – and following his commitment to the holistic approach of Integrated Farming – he has invested considerable time and effort in enhancing wildlife, improving efficiency and increasing the production and use of renewable resources on his farm.

As Sylviane Martin-Pierrat (FARRE), Heinrich Kemper (FNL) and Nico Kass (FILL), Patrick Wrixon (LEAF) has been involved in the work of the respective national EISA member organisation for years. “We must not get tired of demonstrating to the public, to representatives of the media, to administrators and to politicians, that Integrated Farming is a truly sustainable approach, which allows for the efficient production of food, feed, fibre and energy for a continuously growing world population and also takes good care of nature and the environment”, said Patrick when pointing out his objectives for the years to come. He expressed serious hope that in the context of the current CAP reform, EU politicians will recognise the holistic system of IF as one of the best ways to achieve sustainability in agriculture.

Dr. Anton Kraus has taken over responsibility as Chairman of the EISA Executive Committee

About EISA:

The European Initiative for Sustainable Development in Agriculture (EISA), founded in 2001, is an association of national farmers organisations from seven EU Member States: FARRE (Forum de l’Agriculture Raisonnée Respectueuse de L’Environnement, France), FILL (Fördergemeinschaft Integrierte Landbewirtschaftung, Luxemburg), FNL (Förder­gemeinschaft Nachhaltige Landwirtschaft, Germany), GOSZ (Grain Producers’ Organization Hungary), LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming, United Kingdom), ÖAIP (Österreichische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Integrierten Pflanzenschutz, Austria) and OiB (Odling i Balans, Sweden). EISA and its members promote Integrated Farming on a European level.

Integrated Farming in Practise – EISA Farm Visit, this time hosted by the French EISA member FARRE, provided valuable insights in modern, sustainable and efficient agriculture. …Read more

Sustainable Development on a domain scale: On Domain Latour, one station of the EISA-FARRE Farm Visit to Burgundy in May 2012, a project for landscape development on a domain scale was presented. Read more…

Forum Environnement-11: Further information about the EISA-FARRE Farm Visit to Burgundy in May 2012 and examples of key activities of national EISA members can be found here…

Viticulture, Landscape and Functional Biodiversity presentation by Maarten van Helden Read more…

Biological diversity through integrated nature protection

This FNL-Farm Visit is one in the series of field trips within the initiative „Innovation & Natural Environment“ under the umbrella of the Association for the Promotion of Sustainable Agriculture e.V. (FNL). The European Initiative for Sustainable Development in Agriculture e.V. (EISA) is the partner organisation. Read more

EISA-Workshop during International Green Week in Berlin, Germany

Parlamentary Secretary of State, Peter Bleser, of the German Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Consumer protection explains the German “Charta for Agriculture and Consumers”

Berlin, 27 January 2012:The workshop “Building public trust and understanding of farming and food – what more needs to be done?” took place on the EventFarm (ErlebnisBauernhof, fair hall 3.2) of International Green Week in Berlin on 26 January. Following an invitation by EISA, the European Initiative for Sustainable Development in Agriculture, representatives of agricultural organisations from Germany, England, France, Luxembourg, Austria and Sweden presented and discussed how successful agricultural PR can be set up. The Parliamentary Secretary of

State of the German Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, Peter Bleser, and Pekka Pesonen, Secretary General of COPA-COGECA, the united voice of European farmers and their cooperatives, participated in the event.

Vice-chairman Heinrich Kemper of EISA summarized the central statements of the discussion: “Agriculture must be careful not to present itself in the light of glorified romanticism. Otherwise, the gap will grow between reality and the images in the heads of consumers. Our business must not be ashamed to be modern and innovative. The opposite is true, as being modern and innovative must be communicated again and again, openly and with pride“.

Pekka Pesonen, secretary general of COPA-COGECA, highlights why agricultural communication with the public is so important.

Heinrich Kemper identified the following conclusions from the workshop:

• Communication of the agricultural business can only be successful when as many partners as possible act together. Secondly, platforms and joint projects such as the ErlebnisBauernhof of International Green Week or visits of the “Erlebnis: Bauernhof mobile“ in bigger cities must be established and must be used to communicate with factual information as well as emotions. Just passing on drydata and unemotional facts will not be enough to reach consumers successfully.
• On the one hand, farmers have to try to keep up with technological innovations such as precision farming for example, but on the other hand they must try to make these developments and innovations transparent and plausible to consumers.

Finally, Kemper pointed out the importance of Integrated Farming as a holistic guideline: “If we want to feed more and more humans on this planet with the restricted resources which we have, we will need an intelligent agriculture. We will need to „set out for Green Growth“ – the motto of this year’s ErlebnisBauernhof – where this workshop is taking place, and we will definitely need progress through sustainable innovation!“

Tony Worth, chairman of EISA, explains the EISA Integrated Farming Framework as guideline for intelligent agriculture

The ErlebnisBauernhof in fair hall 3.2 of International Green Week is a joint project of Deutscher Bauernverband (DBV – German Farmers Union), the association information.medien.agrar (i.m.a – information, media, agriculture) and FNL (Fördergemeinschaft Nachhaltige Landwirtschaft – Association for the Promotion of Sustainable Agriculture), with FNL acting as responsible coordinator of the ErlebnisBauernhof. More than 50 other partners are involved as well. The Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank supports the ErlebnisBauernhof, and agrarheute.com is the official media partner. Light, sound and video systems of the ErlebnisBauernhof are supported by audio+frames Veranstaltungstechnik GmbH. More information is accessible via http://www.fnl-erlebnisbauernhof.de.

media contact:
coordination office ErlebnisBauernhof
c/o Fördergemeinschaft Nachhaltige Landwirtschaft e.V. (FNL)
Simon Michel-Berger
press spokesperson FNL
tel.: 030 8866355-40, fax: 030 8866355-90
s.michel-berger@fnl.de

(European dimension of the `Charta for Agriculture and Consumers` of the German Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection)” in Berlin on 26 January 2012.

In this workshop, EISA members presented and discussed various communication activities – all designed to inform the public about modern, sustainable agriculture in Europe.

Awareness, innovation and thorough balance of ecology and economy Integrated Farming points the way for future agriculture

EISA (Brussels): The annual EISA Farmers Exchange, hosted by Odling i Balans, the Swedish association for the promotion of sustainable agriculture, took place in Southern Sweden this year. “The event gave excellent insights in modern, efficient, and environmentally friendly agriculture again”, said Tony Worth, chairman of EISA. “The Farmers Exchange has taken us to Sweden, France, Luxemburg, the UK, Germany and Austria in past years – and even though we have not left Central Europe, it is amazing to see how agriculture needs to respect different regions, different climatic and growing conditions as well as diverse marketing opportunities. The flexibility of Integrated Farming to adapt practices according to site and situation is a clear “sustainability advantage” of this production system”, Worth concluded:

For Sven Norup, Chairman of Odling i Balans, there is one distinctive feature of Integrated Farming (IF): “Farmers who follow this holistic system do not just act according to the relevant legislation: It is the IF planning, management and evaluation approach which allows to go beyond legal requirements, to develop perspectives and to improve everyday practice continuously.”

During the two day event, farmers and representatives of IF and other organisations from the agricultural chain visited three farms in Southern Sweden and the Swedish University ofAgricultural Sciences at Alnarp, putting a particular focus on environmental issues such as climate effects, manure handling, bio-energy, nitrogen efficiency and reduced tillage. Besides EISA members and farmers, EU-representatives and other interested stakeholders are invited to participate in this regular Farmers Exchange.

The European Initiative for Sustainable Development in Agriculture (EISA), founded in 2001, is an association of national farmers organisations from six EU Member States. National member organisations are FARRE (Forum de l’Agriculture Raisonnée Respectueuse de L’Environnement, France), FILL (Fördergemeinschaft Integrierte Landbewirtschaftung, Luxemburg), FNL (Fördergemeinschaft Nachhaltige Landwirtschaft, Germany), LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming, United Kingdom), ÖAIP (Österreichische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Integrierten Pflanzenschutz, Austria) and OiB (Odling i Balans, Sweden), all with the common aim to develop and promote Integrated Farming on a European level.