Organic agriculture and aquaculture
Smaller but still important issues are organic agriculture and aquaculture. Some
interviewees feel, that in the frame of the bioeconomy discussion and related funding,
organic agriculture (e.g. The BÖLN programme) was neglected and funds were too little. It
is obvious that there is little interest of industry to invest in organic agriculture research,
therefore public funds are of high importance in order to generate innovation.
Nutrition related topics are quality management (e.g. Antibiotic residues) and nutritional
habits (e.g. Veganism). Examples of smaller problem driven topics are calls for proposals,
the BMEL issued since 2008, dealing e.g. With avian flu or hybrid wheat breeding.
Generally, it is a big challenge to think more in systems: Instead of focusing in single areas
of production the underlying idea should be that livestock production has an influence on
crop production which has an influence on biodiversity (BMEL 2014, interview). This is
connected with currently conflicting funding objectives: measures aiming at resource and
climate efficiency may have negative effects on biodiversity and vice versa (DBV,
interview).
EU Forecast
euf:ba18h:56/nws-01