Fifth Agricultural Business Summit

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen recently outlined the European Green Deal on December 11th 2019, vowing to “leave no-one behind” in the race to achieve a climate neutral economy by 2050. “This is Europe’s man on the moon moment,” she said. “Our goal is to reconcile the economy with our planet” and “to make it work for our people,” describing climate policy as Europe’s new growth strategy.

New challenges are emerging related to climate change and sustainability with the entry into force of the Paris Agreement (COP 21) and the UN’s commitments to sustainable development, while technological innovations are having a considerable impact on the production, processing and distribution of foodstuffs. In addition, Brexit requires the UK to operate outside of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which arises a number of concerns to examine.