{"id":2933,"date":"2018-12-08T21:32:22","date_gmt":"2018-12-08T19:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/?p=2933"},"modified":"2023-05-08T15:34:33","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T13:34:33","slug":"visions-for-agriculture-2050-in-berlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/el\/visions-for-agriculture-2050-in-berlin\/","title":{"rendered":"Visions for Agriculture 2050 in Berlin"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday the 29th of November 2018, the event \u201cVisions for Agriculture 2050<\/a>\u201d took place in the historical cinema \u201cBabylon\u201d in Berlin-Mitte.\u00a0It was an evening full of talks and images focused on\u00a0 the future of agriculture and two opposing systems of growing and producing food, with\u00a0promoters and\u00a0defenders of ecological farming on the one side, led by Vandana Shiva, \u00a0and\u00a0those\u00a0 claiming industrial farming\u00a0is the way to go on the other, led by \u00a0Norbert Lemken, head of the agriculture politics department of Bayer AG.<\/p>\n

In front of a crowd of a few hundred people the ceremony was opened by Benny Haerlin<\/strong>, chairman of the \u201cFoundation for the Future of Farming\u201d (Zukunftsstiftung Landwirtschaft<\/a>). The foundation cooperates with Navdanya at different levels, in the field, saving seeds, but also at major international decision-making events.<\/p>\n

On stage were Vandana Shiva<\/strong>, Norbert Lemken<\/strong>, head of the agriculture politics department of Bayer AG, and Prof. Dr. Sonoko Dorothea Bellingrath-Kimur<\/strong>a, an agriculture and N- (Nitrogen) scientist.<\/p>\n

The heated discussion centered mainly on the opposing views of the speaker of Bayer AG and those of the founder of Navdanya. Prof. Dr. Bellingrath-Kimura\u2019s positions were a good balance between both, her field of work being how to bring the N-cycle into a balance close to Nature after all the artificial inputs from the agro-chemical industry and the outsourcing from harvesting crops. Dr Vandana Shiva stated<\/strong>: “Biodiversity is the web of like, weeds are food and pests are insects, if left in the right balance. The Poison Cartel which began with the experiment of exterminating some humans in Hitler’s concentration camps has brought entire species to extintion. But there is much that we can do as individuals and communities. The defense of life in its vitality and diversity begings with saving one seed, planting one garden”.<\/p>\n

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This was a challenging discussion of the \u201cvision and perspectives of farming 2050\u201d with Prof. Bellingrath-Kimura and Vandana Shiva. At least the more than 500 people were also interested in the dialogue and view of @Bayer4Crops<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/TJl3Uae9rZ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Norbert Lemken (@NorbertLemken) November 29, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Benny Haerlin led the holistic discussion through topics such as the challenges of feeding a population that moves into cities, the scarcity of small scale farmers against big companies, the role of agroecology in the future of farming as well as the role of policies for a good governance. Norbert Lemken stated many times that \u201ca bit of everything is needed, a better way of both ways of farming\u201d. In his opinion, the mere practices of organic farming stand no chance to feed an ever-growing World population. Vandana Shiva strongly argued the opposite, saying that humankind has to step up natural cycles and remove all things it has done to Nature; \u201cWe have to get rid of the ignorance and the arrogance of the anthropocentric World\u201d. In her opinion, biodiversity should not be brought to Nature, as it already is there, it\u2019s all about preserving and multiplying activities that allow biodiversity to grow.<\/p>\n

After the panel discussion, the documentary film \u201cSEED: The Untold Story<\/a>\u201d, produced by Taggart Siegel & Jon Betz and released in 2016, was shown. The film gives a powerful and beautiful image of the importance of seeds as a common good all over the World. Visiting dedicated seed savers all over the World, it shows the importance of a common awakening in order to fight against the threat of the planet Earth becoming a big field where mostly monocropping reigns and modified seeds are increasingly produced.<\/p>\n