FAO Conference In Austria - Farming | farming news | cattle prices | ifa

FAO Conference In Austria

Written by Cian MacSweeny
Saturday, 28 June 2008
The 26th Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) regional conference for Europe took place at Innsbruck, Austria last Thursday and Friday, the 26th & 27th of June. Stressing the importance of promoting traditional regional agricultural products and food, Trevor Sargent TD, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food with special responsibility for Food and Horticulture, said “Ireland sees the promotion of traditional regional agricultural products as an important part of our plan to achieve sustainable rural development and Ireland believes that local food producers and local markets are key to this goal." The Irish Minister was attending a Ministerial Round Table with other European Ministers, to discuss traditional regional agricultural products and food. The FAO was founded in 1945 with the intent to raise levels of nutrition and standards of living, to maximise agricultural productivity, and to improve the conditions of rural populations. The FAO Regional Conference for Europe is held every two years and has worked to alleviate poverty and hunger by fostering agricultural development, improved nutrition and the pursuit of food security. This year in Austria, the topic of climate change in the European Region was debated. Minister Sargent spoke on the topic saying, “Agriculture and forestry industries are increasingly seen as vital part of the solution to the challenge of climate change. While attending the World Organic Congress in Italy last week, strong scientific evidence presented organic farming as a proven way to both adapt to and mitigate the serious reality of climate change effects”. The Irish Minister noted the importance of the upcoming reform of FAO and looked forward to the Immediate Action Plan, which will be taken on at a special Conference in November in Rome. Minister Sargent concluded expressing his hopes “that some aspects of the reform can be implemented immediately and the remainder of the reform should be implemented in a three or four year period”.

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