14.03.2022 | Less talk, more action: turning the soil story around
On the 14th March, the RISE Foundation held its second webinar on soil as part of an ongoing Foundation project to identify ways forward to improve soil health in Europe.
Over the course of the soil project, the European Commission has released a host of soil initiatives at the policy level. Simultaneously RISE has become aware of the numerous soil initiatives that are growing around Europe. These range in all shapes and sizes as companies, local authorities and concerned farmers and individuals respond the increasing awareness of the impact current systems of soil management are having on our food system resilience, on the security of supply chains and on our ability to mitigate climate change. Whilst the impacts of soil management have continued to worsen in the last decade, these grass root initiatives represent real movement towards change.
We wanted to bring together policy makers with those who are working in these initiatives to better understand how one can help the other: what challenges are these soil initiatives facing, and what do they need from policy to help overcome them, and upscale? What do policy makers see as the hurdles on the horizon, and how can information being developed at the grass roots end help them to design an effective policy framework.
Listen to the webinar below to hear more about what the speakers discussed on elevating soil’s protection status, recognising the role of the private sector in moving the soil agenda forward, metrics, landscape level approaches, and whether farmers should be paid premiums for sustainable farming.
And keep a look out for the RISE Foundation’s final report on soil when it is released in June 2022.
AGENDA
Welcome and introduction – Dr Janez POTOCNIK – RISE Foundation Chairman
Setting the scene and moderation – Em. Prof Allan BUCKWELL – RISE Foundation
Session 1: Connecting policy and grass root soil initiatives
Claudia OLAZABAL, Head of Unit – Land Use and Management (ENV.D.1) at EC DG Environment
Victoria GUTIERREZ, Head of Global Policy – Commonland
Session 2 – What role can the whole food chain play?
Tiffanie STEPHANI, Director of European Government Relations and External Communications – Yara International
Laurence BRAURE, Origins Programme in France & Belgium – Kellogg’s
Leonardo MIRONE, Group Purchasing Director, Sustainable Sourcing Coordination – Barilla
Q&A
This event is part of the Forum for the Future of Agriculture: https://www.forumforagriculture.com/