Raúl David Guevara Ballesteros and Charlotte Goursot have attended the COST Connect meeting in Brussels (17-18.10.2024) and presented a poster to introduce the LIFT to other COST Actions related to Agriculture. The aim of this meeting was to increase the impact and networking between the different COST Actions related to agriculture and its products. We indeed identified potential synergies with other COST Actions (Pictures 2-4). Invited speakers with various backgrounds and functions talked about the European Commission structures and the importance of lobbyists who can influence EU decisions/priorities for the common agricultural policy (CAP). From Henriette Christensen (lobbyist at Agro-Ecology Europe), it was interesting to learn that it is crucial to publish scientific papers proving competitiveness/socio-economic impact of a certain topic (in her case agro-ecology but this could be applied to animal welfare) to support efficient lobbying within EU.
There will be a follow-up online meeting by the end of this year so that we can keep in touch with Brussels structures (stakeholders and policy makers networks). This will represent an opportunity for influencing policy discussions and participating in the drafting of the next EU-CAP programme. Other LIFT members can join this discussion, please let us know if you want to join!
Take Home Messages for the LIFT:
- Potential synergies with other COST Actions have been identified in the topics of: Sustainability with https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA21125/ (about revitalisation of marginalised mountain areas)Ethics, Animal protection with https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA22105/ (about bee farming)
- Animal breeding programmes with https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA22112/ (about livestock phenomics)
- Animal breeding programmes with https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA22112/ (about livestock phenomics)
- More potential connections with farmers through the CAP Network:
The talk of Sergiu Didicescu (Head of Division, EU CAP Network) was inspiring as it explained the structure of the EU’s CAP Network and the functioning of Operational Groups (OG) and EIP-AGRI events (https://ec.europa.eu/eip/agriculture/en/news-events/events/eip-agri-events.html). Such OG are farmer-driven associations present at the national level (Picture 5). Their aims can be among others to introduce new technologies/methodologies at the farm level. Special workshops for farmers can be organised and co-funded by the CAP. This idea could be highly relevant to the WG3 of the LIFT and should be submitted to the leaders of WG3. - Possibility to organise a follow-up conference (or another meeting) to keep in touch with other COST Actions with the budget of the COST Association (and not by isolated COST Actions).
Related to this: A relevant event that LIFT members may want to attend: The Agri-Food days (11-12 December 2024 in Brussels): https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/eu-agri-food-days_en
From left top to right: LIFT members Raúl David Guevara Ballesteros and Charlotte Goursot presenting a LIFT poster; Somaye Latifi, Irene Christoforidi and Antonio T. Monteiro presenting MARGISTAR; Andreia Freitas presenting BeSafeBeeHoney; and Luca Fontanesi presenting EU-LI-PHE.
