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Science and technology
Food and nutrition in 21 st
century international conference
On 9 th September this year, a conference entitled “Food and nutrition in 21 st
century” was held in Warsaw. The patron of the conference was Marek Sawicki,
the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. It was organized by the
Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Research Institute of Pomology
and Floriculture in Skierniewice, in close cooperation with the Directorate
for Biotechnology, Agriculture and Food of the European Commission.
The conference was one of the flagship events organized
in the framework of the Polish Presidency of the
EU Council.
During the speech opening the session, Marek Sawicki,
the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, presented
a short paper entitled “Common Agricultural Policy
aimed at providing consumers with high quality food”.
During the speech, the Minister presented mechanisms
and actions implemented in the framework of the Common
Agricultural Policy, serving the support of high quality
food production. At the end of the presentation, the
Minister outlined the main challenges in the area of food
and nutrition that the Common Agricultural Policy has to
face, including, among others, creating policy of healthy
nutrition, promoting local food systems and precisely
identifying long-term effects of the admission of GMO.
In the plenary session, the floor was taken by, among
others, guests from abroad representing European institutions:
Dr. Maive Rute – Director, Directorate E - Biotechnologies,
Agriculture, Food European Commission;
Professor Elke Anklam – Director, Institute for Health
and Consumer Protection, European Commission’s Joint
Research Centre; Dr. Michael E. Knowles – Chairman, European
Technology Platform “Food for life”.
The conference was attended by more than 400 participants
from all over Europe: scientists, politicians,
representatives of the industry sector, consumers’ organizations
and others.
The main objectives of the conference were:
To identify main threats to the European bio-economy
in the light of EU policies, including those pertaining
to food industry, agriculture, nutrition safety, food quality
and the evaluation of the diet’s impact on health and
well-being of Europeans;
To identify major trends in food and nutrition research;
To propose recommendations for European research
and innovation policy in these areas.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Marek Sawicki,
delivers a speech at the session opening the Conference
Autumn 2011 49