Farewell Agenda 21

Rio de Janeiro – famous for its beautiful women, beach soccer and the best carnival in the world. But, that there is more to Rio de Janeiro and Brazil, is being demonstrated from 20 June until 22 June as the the UN Conference on Sustainable Development “Rio plus 20” will take place. Approximately 100 heads of state and government and 50,000 participants will discuss the current successes, failures and developments concerning the environment and sustainability. The main goal of the conference is to replace the current Agenda 21 by moving into new directions warranting realistic and sustainable economic approaches for all countries.

This goal should be achieved by counselling and supporting interested countries competently in their most urgent environmental issues. With this in mind, the EU demands that the United Nations and international finance agencies commit themselves to support participating governments during their transition to establishing environmentally friendly and socially acceptable policies. The feature that the private sector will be included in this venture indicates that changes in legislation concerning agriculture are likely to happen.

The DBV clearly shares this view in its statement: “The main challenge of agriculture is sustainability worldwide while safeguarding an affordable supply of food by means of economically feasible farming which ascertains high quality along with reduced environmental impact.“

If agriculture will become of more interest to policy-makers and will be supported by increased investments, or if new legislation and regulations will be introduced to protect the environment, is an outcome which will become visible in the next few weeks. Keep your eyes open.