CEJA Annual report

C EJA | 20 09 Ac tivit y Re p ort

in

Agriculture

CEJA | European Council of Young farmers

CEJA is an umbrella organisation gathering young farmers from all over Europe and is one of the key advocates for the agricultural sector at European level. This non-profit organisation has, at present, 26 member organisations and one observer member from 21 different European countries, representing around one million young farmers.

CEJA does not defend nor depend on any political ideology and gathers a broad spectrum of young farmers and rural youth members. It is an international organisation governed by a General Assembly and a Presidium, CEJA’s main decision making bodies, as well as a Presidency which is made up of one President and four Vice-Presidents of different nationalities, elected for a two year term. The CEJA office is based in Brussels and is composed of two to three staff members and usually one or two trainees.

CEJA’s main objectives are to ease the installation of young farmers in Europe, to inform, train and represent them, to act as a platform for communication between young farmers and to make European citizens aware of farming-related issues.

CEJA maintains regular contact with European institutions, European decision-makers as well as organisations dealing with agriculture and takes part in 18 Agricultural Advisory Groups of the European Commission.

Presidency 2009-2011 President: Joris Baecke (NL) Vice-Presidents: Donato Fanelli (IT), Ingrid Pettersson (SE), Rok Sedminek (SI), Julien Valentin (FR) Secretary General: Inga Klawitter Project Officer: Gaya Ducceschi Communications Officer: Daniel Puglisi

CEJA People 02 CEJA Elections during General Assembly 2009: Presentation of the new Team and Farewell to the outgoing CEJA Presidency CEJA Staff and Office Life Young Farmer and Student Visits to CEJA Presidium July 2009 and Farming Games in Slovenia

CEJA POSITIONS 12 Agriculture and Water Issues Young Farmers and Climate Change The Future of the CAP after 2013

CEJA POLITICS 16 CEJA at Informal Agriculture Council Meetings in the Czech Republic and Sweden CEJA at G8 and G14 Agriculture Meetings CEJA Contact with the European Parliament and the European Commission

CEJA PARTNERS 21 CERYC Activities and Contact with European Newcomers, including Reports from CEJA Visits to Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia

COPA-COGECA: CEJA Speaks at Farmers’ Demonstration in Luxemburg IFAP Young Farmers Meeting during World Congress in Dublin RYE General Assembly: Rebuilding Cooperation of our two Umbrella Organisations

CEJA PROJECTS 29 Agri-Multifunctionality II on its way: Reports from Team Meetings in April and November 2009 CEJA Communication Programme: Political Training for Young Farm Leaders

CEJA PUBLICITY 32 CEJA at Agricultural Fairs: Grüne Woche, Biofach, Salon International de l’Agriculture and Agritechnica

CEJA PERSPECTIVES 36 Irish Young Farmers from Macra coming back Cooperation Agreement with Rabobank CEJA Members 38

2

CEJA PEOPLE CEJA Presidency With an introduction by CEJA President Joris Baecke

ceja People People ceja

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

A s my first year as CEJA President draws to a close, I reflect on the rollercoaster ride that we have been on this year! I took the reins of the European Council of Young Farmers at a period of great uncertainty, with the global recession having a knock-on effect on commodity prices across the agricultural sector.

In June, at a mass demonstration which took place during the Council of Agriculture Ministers in Luxembourg, young farmers took to the streets in their droves (and their tractors!) to speak out against falling commodity prices which put significant pressure on young farmers who have set up their enterprises in the last few years. Over 500 tractors from the four corners of Europe, and many more farmers, were present to demonstrate and to have their voices heard. These young European food producers were not asking for much - they simply asked to be able to keep their businesses, their farms, in a sustainable way and to be able to provide their young families a decent livelihood.

This demonstration was just one example of the deep desire and motivation amongst young farmers to start and develop their careers, to serve society, to feed the population – not only in Europe, but beyond its borders.

European citizens are too often critical of the role of farmers in a modern day society and do not always respect the important role farmers play in a modern world. As global population continues to grow, the demand for food will most definitely exceed supply. We need to protect, respect and assist these important guardians of our planet’s nutritional health and natural resources, and support them through strong actions and financial incentives in their efforts to increase output, to change their methods of production and to adapt to the challenge of global food security. To quote a slogan used during our demonstrations: “NO FARMERS, NO FOOD”!

In tandem with their increasing importance, a worrying trend is developing. Farmers the producers of agricultural raw materials - are gaining less from their role in the food chain. It seems that processors are the true winners in the increasing demand for global food. Young farmers have been crying out for increased transparency in the food chain, however at times one feels that these cries are falling on deaf

Having served the maximum terms allowed under the CEJA statutes, 2009 saw our organisation say farewell to its longterm Presidency, and the CEJA elections ushered a new era for CEJA’s political future. These young farmers will be the voice of our members as post2013 CAP reforms begin. In line with the new faces on our political side, the secretariat also saw quite a few changes and welcomed many interesting characters to the Brussels office.

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

ears. As discussions continue on the CAP post 2013, it is imperative that this growing concern is addressed, so as to give our young farmers an incentive to produce, and to produce well. Farmers make significant installation investments in order to set up their agrienterprises and such efforts cannot and must not be undermined by the mass profit-making culture of some processors at European level. If we are serious about feeding the world, let’s give all actors the incentives to do so!

As we reflect on the first decade of this new millennium, it is also evident that population patterns are dramatically changing and that our rural areas are in decline. Young people are attracted by the bright lights of city life, and this is leading to significant generational decline in agriculture. The impetus is on our politicians to fully realise the potential of our rural areas as centres for sustainable economic growth, as generators of rural employment, as visionaries in the field of clean energy technologies, and most importantly, as a social alternative to hectic city life. Therefore significant investment must be made through the post-2013 CAP in renewing rural areas, in ensuring widespread broadband access, significant transport services and improvements in infrastructure. Moreover, we must ensure the adequate provision of basic services in these areas. In this manner farmers can be net contributors to economic recovery, to environmental protection, energy production and job creation.

Finally, as you will see, the cover of our publication for 2009 highlights the theme of “diversity”. In the face of the increasing challenges that face our sector, we actively encourage our members to “think outside the box”, to be courageous and to try new ideas, new methods…to innovate and diversify! As I highlighted at my recent presentation at the Agritechnica Agricultural fair in Hanover, it’s your farm, your ideas and your future that are at stake. Agri-entrepreneurship is the key to sustainable farming, and by practicing in so-called “multifunctional” farming, we can have a safety net as we face the challenges ahead.

In this chapter you will get an exciting flavour of life in the CEJA office and the many groups of young farmers or agricultural students who have visited us throughout the past year.

I wish you all a very healthy and prosperous 2010.

Yours Sincerely, Joris Baecke

© Inga Klawitter

ceja ceja People People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

3

© Inga Klawitter

4

Outgoing Presidency

ceja People People ceja

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

Following eight years at the helm, Giacomo Ballari ended his time as CEJA President in 2009. Giacomo spent the maximum amount of time at the head of CEJA, with two mandates as Vice-President and two as President under his belt. Amongst his many achievements during that time was his support for the role of multifunctional farming, the compulsory indication of origin and raising awareness of the importance of training for innovation and forward-thinking agri-entrepeneurs. A successful farmer, he has seen his business, primarily focused on honey production, develop and diversify over the years. We also acknowledge the contribution of former Vice-Presidents Erik Jennewein, Laurent Fischer, Péter Szász and Pieter Van Oost, who worked hard for CEJA and its young farmers throughout their tenure. We wish the outgoing CEJA Presidency all the best for 2010 and hope to maintain strong links with them in the future!

New Presidency CEJA President Joris Baecke from the Dutch organisation NAJK was unanimously

elected CEJA President. NAJK’s national delegate to CEJA from 2005 until his election, Joris runs an arable crop farm with his family.

The farm produces potatoes, onions, sugar-beets, grass for seed production, wheat and flax. From the age of 18, he has been mainly responsible for plant healthcare, fertilisation and administrative matters concerning cross-compliance and GlobalGAP certification at his farm in the Southwest of the Netherlands. He has held a wide range of roles in agricultural organizations and national committees in his country.

In his inauguration speech he underlined his belief that a strong and well organised representation of Europe’s young farmers at European level is essential. “The many discussions that I have had with my colleagues during CEJA seminars and events have not only increased my awareness of the diversity of European agriculture and young farmers’ interests, but also showed me the many things that we have in common,” he added. “After 50 years, CEJA is still a young and lively partner for many European institutions, enjoying a healthy dialogue with them. I want to continue these important activities, representing young farmers´ interests and facing the challenges that lie ahead.”

His new team was completed with the following Vice-Presidents:

CEJA Presidium and General Assembly 2009 The CEJA Presidium took place on the 26th February 2009 in the COPA-COGECA meeting room. The Presidium discussed the budget for 2009, the annual report for 2008 was presented, along with the projects CEJA is currently involved in and an overview of CERYC activities in 2008 was given. The Presidium served as preparation for the General Assembly one month later, on the 31st March 2009. This important statutory meeting gathered more than 80 Young Farmers from 24 CEJA member organisations. After a morning session devoted to the revision of internal statutory and financial documents together with a presentation from CEJA’s partner, IFAP’s Young Farmers’ Committee, the entire afternoon was dedicated to the election of a completely new CEJA Presidency.

The main responsibilities of the new CEJA board members are: CEJA Vice-Presidents

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

Donato Fanelli who has been with Coldiretti since he was 14

years old, becoming national Vice-President in 2003 and National President of Coldiretti Young Farmers in 2005. In addition, he has been involved with CEJA since 2002. Donato took over his father’s farm in 1999 and started modernising production and marketing through innovation. He is now producing table grapes and cherries for export to England, Germany and Sweden, and is set to expand his business in the coming years.

Ingrid Pettersson a member of the Swedish regional LRF Youth

board for the past seven years, both as Vice-President and President, and member of the national board for the last three years. She was responsible for international issues and regularly participated in CEJA activities. Ingrid already took an active part in the daily work of the family farm during her childhood and youth, especially in the areas of crop production and dairy. Today, a small amount of forestry has been added to the family farm. After finishing her agricultural studies, she worked on different farms, mainly with pigs, both as an animal-keeper and as a forewoman.

ceja ceja People People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

Rok Sedminek former President of the Slovenian Rural Youth

organisation ZSPM and a member of several committees in the Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry of Slovenia, including hop growing, horse breeding, educational, social welfare, rural family and agriculture committees. He studied at the Šentjur high school to become an agricultural technician. Since the year 2000, Rok has been a co-owner of a 60 hectare farm specialising in animal husbandry.

Julien Valentin who joined the French young farmers organisation,

Jeunes Agriculteurs, in 2000 as administrator of his county, received a mandate in the county administrative council in 2004, and finally a mandate as Vice-President from 2006-2009. Julien is currently a member of the national administrative council. In 2002 he set up in Champagne-Ardennes and he juggles between his activity as a farmer and his work as a union activist in the young farmers association Jeunes Agriculteurs. New technologies are a major focus of his activities and on his farm he grows wheat, beet, corn, rape, carrots and grass seeds.

Joris Baecke President: Agriculture policy and CAP after 2013 | EU Budget | WTO and Global Agriculture Donato Fanelli Vice-President and Treasurer: Rural development and Leader | Multifunctionality and Entrepreneurship | Quality Products and Consumer Orientation | School Fruit Scheme Ingrid Petterson Vice-President: Lifelong learning, Research and Innovation | Contact with CEJA’s partner organisation CERYC | Women in Agriculture Rok Sedminek Vice-President: Climate change, Environment and Sustainability | EU Enlargement | Potential New CEJA members Julien Valentin Vice-President: Bioenergy and Renewables | Competitiveness and the market situation | Risk Management | Food chain and relations with the agri-food industry All Presidency members will be responsible for installation issues, financial support for Young Farmers and the renewal of generations.

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

© Inga Klawitter

5

6

CEJA staff and office life

With an introduction by CEJA Secretary General Inga Klawitter

ceja People People ceja

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

My third year with CEJA was dominated by changes. Since none of the CEJA Presidency members could or would renew their mandate, an entirely new team was elected during the General Assembly in spring. You have found a double page on the old and new political representatives above. I would like to use this occasion to thank once again the outgoing Presidency for their long-term hard work for CEJA … and good luck to the new team!

The office also went through quite a few changes and I am glad to see that many of my former colleagues have been promoted in the European Parliament, the European Commission - where we have recently seen a very famous example with a former CEJA Secretary General becoming Head of Cabinet – with other farmers’ organisations and lately even the Irish Supreme Court. Since we have not dedicated much room to CEJA staff in the previous editions of our yearly Activity Report, I would like to make up for it in this edition: You can see a list of the many different people that have worked for CEJA, as trainees and fixed employees, since I joined the organisation in February 2007 to the right. Thanks to all of them for their commitment to CEJA - we have achieved great things together over the last three years!

In 2009, due to modifications in the European Commission programme for communication measures, CEJA was not able to organise as many seminars as in the past. We will make up for this in 2010 as you will see in the next edition of this publication! Last year, a new initiative in form of a communication programme aimed to fill this gap but crisis got in the way and young farmers’ organisations had difficulties participating in the different film, photo, training and exchange programme initiatives.

On a political level, CEJA was again invited to speak at Informal Council meetings of Agriculture Ministers, participated in the G8 and

Silvia Canali IT Arne Mielken DE Magali Delomier FR Jérome Schiettecatte BE Elena Visconti IT Beatrice Biolcati IT Katja Vrtovec SI Vendula Rajdlova CZ Erika Mirandola IT ArturJanuszewski PL Piergiorgio Graziotti IT Maja-Alexandra Dittel DE Adas Pangonis LT Reeta Lehtinen FI Matthew Roberts UK Amaury de Lussigny FR Anne Fitzpatrick IE Gaya Ducceschi IT Daniel Puglisi UK, IT Dimitri Sturbois BE Krzysztof Laskowski PL Thanks for the commitment shown to CEJA by the many trainees and employees, that have worked with me since February 2007

ceja ceja People People

ceja Positions

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

G14 agriculture meetings in Italy, had high-level meetings with the European Commission and the European Parliament and came up with several important position papers. 2009 also provided an opportunity to get in contact with newly established young farmer organisations in the New Member States and some of them have announced that they wish to join CEJA in the near future. We are also glad that we could finally welcome former CEJA member Macra back and embrace all these old and new young farmers’ organisations to CEJA! Throughout 2009, we also concentrated on increased collaboration with partners from the sector and took part in several activities of IFAP, the International Federation of Agricultural Producers, and RYE, Rural Youth Europe. The usual exchange with COPA-COGECA, the MER, the CAP NGO, IFOAM and other Brussels based organisations was also maintained on a regular basis. Additionally, we increased our activities during agricultural fairs such as Grüne Woche, Biofach, Salon International de l’Agriculture and Agritechnica important moments for direct contact with agriculture business representatives for increased collaboration with industry partners. We also advanced with our multifunctionality project which will soon provide young farmers with interesting examples of diversification in agriculture and provide an internet training platform. Last but not least, many groups of young farmers and agricultural students visited the CEJA office throughout the year an important opportunity for us to showcase what CEJA is actually doing in Brussels and to build up some direct contact at grass roots level.

I hope I have awakened your interest in these very diverse areas of CEJA activities and that you will continue to read about them in more detail. Enjoy!

Best wishes, Inga Klawitter

© Inga Klawitter

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

7

8

© Inga Klawitter

Young farmer and student visits to CEJA

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

D uring the visits, the CEJA office gave presentations on CEJA’s activities and opinions regarding the current situation and the future of European agriculture. The presentations were always followed by interesting debates on current and future issues in agriculture. The CEJA office was often joined by a young farmer to present a good overview of both daily office life and lobbying activities as well as political effects on the life of farmers, and experiences from the field.

CEJA trainees regularly attended these presentations to get a more wholesome view of CEJA and to learn about interest representation in Brussels.

Not only young farmers but also students visited CEJA: On the 29th January and the 10th February, student groups from Plumpton College (East Sussex, UK) and from the German “TOP Kurs” programme came to our office. In the first case CEJA Secretary General Inga Klawitter was asked to explain CEJA to agricultural students from Poland, Bulgaria and Romania who were studying to become supervisors and managers on farms or elsewhere in the industry.

The participants in the TOP Kurs, all young farmers themselves, asked many detailed questions on CEJA’s political opinions and were particularly surprised by the low budget available to such an important organisation as CEJA. They showed great interest in practical tips to support CEJA in its efforts and to become better known throughout Germany.

On the 14th January, CEJA’s Project Officer Piergiorgio Graziotti

welcomed a French young farmers’ delegation from the Centre region.

They were especially interested in discussions on how Europe will deal with global competition in a free market system and CEJA’s former Vice President, Pieter Van Oost, explained CEJA’s position on this issue and the importance of unity and a common viewpoint.

ceja Positions

Agriculteurs from the Côte d’Armor region in Brittany. Xavier Bourgeois, a member of the Walloon young farmers’ organisation FJA and active CEJA member, introduced the different EU institutions and the European decision-making process to the group.

ceja People People ceja

On the 20th January the CEJA office welcomed the Jeunes

Coldiretti representation in Brussels to present the situation of young farmers in Europe to a group of young farmers from Giovani Impresa Coldiretti Ferrara of the Emilia Romagna region. The meeting was hosted by Maurizio Reale, Secretary General of Coldiretti Brussels.

On the 26th January, CEJA accepted an invitation from the

In order to increase its visibility and promote the interests of young farmers, CEJA has opened its doors to many different young farmers organisations during the last year, aiming to show CEJA’s day-to-day-workings as an umbrella organisation and to highlight what our Presidency and the office team are doing to defend young farmers’ interests.

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

9

ceja ceja People People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

met with a delegation of Swedish young farmers from LRF in their Brussels’ office. The new CEJA assistant, Maja-Alexandra Dittel and two trainees accompanied her to gain an introduction to CEJA and have direct contact with some of CEJA’s members. The presentation was followed by a discussion of key issues for young farmers in Sweden and in which way they differ from the main agricultural concerns in other European countries. Water, for example, is one of the main issues for Swedish young farmers. However the quality of the water plays a much greater role here than water scarcity, which is a big problem in the South of Europe.

On the 16th February, a group of young farmers from Ile-

et-Vilaine in Brittany, France, visited the CEJA office. A meeting with a representative from Breiz-Europe presented an excellent opportunity to become familiar with the activities of an organisation defending the rights and the positions of farmers from Brittany On the 18th February a NAJK delegation from the Brabant region

of the Netherlands, visited CEJA in order to familiarise themselves with its role and work. The discussion which followed the general CEJA presentation focused on agricultural activities that the visitors were involved in at home. These ranged from the dairy sector to the cultivation of cherry tomatoes to horse breeding.

On the 30th March, a group from Landjugend Österreich, our

Austrian member organisation, visited CEJA. The majority of the visitors were young farmers themselves or agriculture students. Active CEJA member Franz Fehr informed the group of the key EU policies and legislation affecting agriculture, in particular the Water Framework Directive and the proposed Soil Framework Directive.

On the 2nd April , a group of Finnish young farmers, including

the President of IFAP’s Young Farmers Committee Kati Partanen and the Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK) Secretary General Aino Sillanpää visited the CEJA office in Brussels. The CEJA presentation was followed by many questions to the Finnish trainee Reeta Lehtinen about her experiences and work at the CEJA office and in Brussels.

On the 28th April , COPA-COGECA and CEJA had the opportunity

to present themselves to a group of young farmers from Luxemburg in the premises of COPA-COGECA. The debate which followed the presentations touched upon a variety of topics and the group was especially interested in knowing CEJA’s position on the future of milk production in Europe.

© Inga Klawitter

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

On the 2nd February, CEJA Secretary General Inga Klawitter

It was a pleasure to host young farmers from the Philippines Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) and the Asian Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Asia (AsiaDHRRA) in the CEJA office on the 6th May. AsiaDHRRA is an umbrella organisation whose members are NonGovernmental Organisations (NGOs). These NGOs attempt to organise rural communities into federations based on sector, for example the Philippino farmers’ federation, the National Confederation and Movement of Peasant Organisations (PAKISAMA).

It was clear that European and Asian agriculture share a common challenge, namely: how to motivate young people to go into farming. In developing countries, there is very little money to be made in farming, so there is little incentive for young people to choose this career. In rich countries, the youth is more attracted to the urban lifestyle than that of the countryside and so farming is seen as unappealing. It was agreed that CEJA, AsiaDHRRA and the AFA should share information on agriculture in their respective regions in order to find possible areas for cooperation.

On the 15th June , a group of 25 young German farmers from the Rheinhessen-Pfalz region came to the CEJA office to receive information on our work and activities. “Farming in a changing environment” could be the translation of the motto that was asked to be covered by the CEJA presentation. The young farmers were very enthusiastic and asked many questions during the presentation, given by the CEJA Secretary General, as well as during the lively discussions which followed. Inga Klawitter encouraged the group to share their experiences with decision makers since policy-makers depend on the communication from those affected by their decisions. As many wine growers were in the group, this field of production received a lot of attention. Young farmers voicing their concerns can have an impact in Brussels, an example of which was the withdrawal of a proposal to produce rosé by mixing red and white wine which happened to be part of Brussels’ agenda at the time. The protests by wine producers prompted a policy re-think at EU level. © Inga Klawitter

ceja People People ceja

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

10

ceja ceja People People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

I

n summer 2009, a CEJA Presidium was organised in the beautiful Slovenian mountains - a very different setting from other statutory meetings. After a long preparatory Presidency meeting in the morning and the evening before, participants from many different CEJA member organisations as well as observer members from Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia came together to discuss CEJA’s future strategy and the priorities for the upcoming months.

After a report from President Joris Baecke on CEJA Presidency activities, different political and organisational issues were on the agenda.

Based on the background paper that had been sent around, Secretary General Inga Klawitter gave an overview of the special European situation in 2009, with the elections in the European Parliament, the renewal of the European Commission, the pending Lisbon Treaty, the Irish Referendum on it later in the year as well as the priorities of the Swedish Council Presidency that started their activities shortly before the Presidium meeting. The different CEJA Vice-Presidents reported on responsibilities they took over, i.e. on new potential members, common activities with the CERYC, reinforced collaboration with consumer organisations and our struggle for increased transparency in the food chain. However, since the main subject on the CEJA agenda over the coming weeks and months was to be the future of the CAP after 2013, the CEJA Presidium decided to set up a working group that brought forth their first position two months later, in October 2009.

An extract of this position can be found in the next chapter and the entire paper on the CEJA website.

CEJA participation in Slovenian International farming games After the Presidium meeting, on the 4th July 2009, the 2nd edition of the Slovenian farming games took place.

CEJA participated with an international team including participants from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece and Sweden.

Many different challenges were waiting for us! Grass had to be cut with a scythe, then put together on a stack as fast as possible, a very heavy tree trunk had to be moved forward with picks over several meters and a “fake” cow had to be milked. Unfortunately the last game, walking on a hay stack, was cancelled because the rolls fell apart after the first round.

In the end, out of 24 teams, “Europa mixed” made it to the 5th international place!

The meetings mentioned above were also important for creating a closer link between the CERYC, our partner organisation for Central and Eastern European young farmers, and CEJA. Many exchanges took place over those two days and many more common activities are foreseen.

© Inga Klawitter

CEJA Presidium July 2009 and farming games

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

11

12

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

CEJA POSITIONS

In a time of economic crisis, and unprecedented financial pressure on our members, CEJA upped the ante by producing three concrete policy proposals on key member concerns – namely water in agriculture, agriculture and climate change and the CAP after 2013. In the following chapter you can read the key messages of young farmers on these fundamental policy areas.

CEJA position on Water C EJA underlines that agriculture should have a special status in water issues; European agriculture is directly dependant on rainfall making it an essential need for food production.

Agriculture is able to provide solutions for many water issues, including the prevention of soil erosion and flooding, the safeguarding of good water quality and drinking water availability since it plays a key role in land management.

Young farmers realise the negative affects that agriculture can have on water bodies and are willing to engage in the implementation of environmental measures.

Taking into account the new challenges European agriculture is facing through climate change, a constantly growing world population and the connected food crisis, the EU should refrain from introducing further regulatory burdens on agriculture and lift some of the existing ones, if it wants to prevent the abandonment of agriculture in Europe.

An EU policy that will support farmers to overcome the new challenges and which will allow them to develop locallytailored solutions is needed instead of one-fits-all solutions, especially given different regional realities. CEJA believes new legislation should make provisions for training, innovation and research as well as financial support for farmers to adapt, through preferential credits or tax advantages.

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

CEJA Vice-President Ingrid Pettersson at the World Water Week on the 18th August 2009 in Stockholm, Sweden Young farmers consider sustainable water management as a very important issue. In fact, our working group on environmental issues has, after finishing with the big discussions around pesticides last year, decided to work on water. This subject has now been discussed over the last months and we are right now finalising our position paper.

During our work on the issue, we also got in touch with the European Water Partnership, invited speakers from this initiative to our working group meetings and gave input to the initiative from the point of view of young farmers. Such an initiative is very important because water will become a very valuable and rare resource in the future. However, we should not forget that agriculture is a special sector that produces the basic needs for society - i.e. food - and in their work with plants and animals farmers are especially dependent on water. Agriculture should therefore not be treated the same way as other sectors and this is why we, as young farmers, decided to join the EWP’s working group on agriculture and make our voice heard in such a crucial project for our future. However, we have to make sure that this initiative does not lead to even more bureaucratic burdens than the many rules farmers already have to respect. These days, much time is “lost” with bureaucratic tasks, time that we would rather like to use for the production of food! […]

The next generation of farmers wants to contribute to finding solutions to the challenges of these days, to use CEJA as a European network that gathers best practice examples and promotes them among young farmers and to hereby contribute to a more sustainable use of water in the future.

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

13

14

CEJA position paper on Agriculture and Climate Change

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

A griculture is and will continue to be the sector most adversely affected by climate change. Equally, agriculture can play an integral role in tackling the phenomenon, and European young farmers are dedicated to mitigating its effects through practical, cost-effective and economically viable solutions. Examples include climate-smart farming practices such as changing the composition of livestock nutrition, increased research and development, support for clean energy projects as well as more focus on risk management practices and specifically targeting farmers in the dissemination of climate change information, amongst others.

Whilst the sector has already made significant steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and should continue to do so to the extent possible, farmers’ primary role as food producers should not be significantly compromised. Consequently agriculture should remain outside of the Emission Trading Scheme. Any agreement to emerge from the UNFCCC Copenhagen conference of December 2009 should include the sector, which incidentally is the only sector capable of sequestering carbon in soils during the production process. To avoid a one-size-fits-all approach to mitigation and adaptation, climate change solutions should be tailored to specific sectors such as agriculture to get the best results.

CEJA Vice-President Ingrid Petersson during a hearing on “The Northern Dimension of less-favoured areas” on the 25 - 26th May 2009 in Tallinn, Estonia CEJA’s young farmers think that it should be possible to produce food and raw materials anywhere in the European Union, also in areas that are called “disadvantaged”.

These regions are part of the great diversity of landscapes and productions methods in Europe. Therefore, CEJA believes it to be important that less-favoured areas receive special support. In times of food crisis and a growing demand for food, it is crucial to assure food production everywhere in Europe. Furthermore, lessfavoured areas often play an important role in tourism and landscape management is one of the crucial activities for farmers. These farmers also help keeping people on the land and avoid desertification.

Young Farmers and the CAP after 2013

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

CEJA’s position paper on the CAP after 2013 outlines young farmers’ key considerations for future agriculture policy and how they could be supported in a series of ways. Young farmers should be a priority in both pillars of the CAP, whose policies should support innovation, market transparency, the diversification of agricultural activities and help to implement climate-smart practices among others. Financial support is imperative: installation aid should be made compulsory Europe-wide and measures which support farm long-term development such as investment capital premiums must be considered.

Young farmers need appropriate tools for better market organization and market support instruments should be more efficient. Knowledge exchange such as educational exchange programmes and training are vital to broaden and widen farmers’ activities. Stable legislation is essential in providing security after the often large scale investments that are made at start up, as well as to facilitate the development of a competitive business. European young farmers should be able to develop themselves as true agri-entrepreneurs and with support ensure environmentally sustainable farming for the next generation.

CEJA President Joris Baecke at the Informal Council meeting of Agriculture Ministers on 2nd June 2009 in Brno, Czech Republic As young European farmers, we have never been much in favour of historical references.

Instead, we want to address the challenges of the future, such as feeding the world, climate change, energy supply and biodiversity, to look forward and not look back.

We do feel there are legitimate arguments for a basic direct payment to farmers, when we look at the high standards European society asks us to produce, compared to our colleagues in the rest of the world. This basic payment can be topped up for individual farmers who deliver special services.

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

15

16

CEJA POLITICS

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

In 2009 the CEJA Presidency, our organisation’s political wing, participated in the Czech and Swedish Informal Councils of European Agricultural Ministers and forged strong alliances with European policy-makers. CEJA also made its voice heard in the global agricultural debate through the Presidency’s participation at meetings of G8 and G14. In this chapter you can read of our political activities during the last year.

CEJA at Informal Councils: Czech Republic and Sweden Czech Republic, 31st May - 2nd June 2009 CEJA President addresses Informal Council of Agriculture

CEJA Presidency invited to

Ministers | On the 2nd June 2009, CEJA President Joris Baecke

take part in Informal Council

was invited to speak to Europe’s Agriculture Ministers during their Informal Council meeting in Brno, Czech Republic. After interventions from outgoing COM-AGRI President Neil Parish and COPA President Padraig Walshe, Joris Baecke brought Europe’s young farmers into the discussions. He referred to the positive decision to raise the ceiling of installation aid that was taken in the Health Check and asked the Ministers to now use these funds on national level. Only with a prosperous agricultural sector in the future, which will mainly rely on the next generation of farmers, answers to the food crisis and the growing demand for food can be found. Referring to the results of a research study from the Institute for Agricultural Research in Wageningen University, he explained that young farmers are especially hard hit by the current financial crisis. They often depend on loans for developing their businesses and these loans are difficult to get in times of crisis.

activities | CEJA President Joris Baecke

The CEJA President also referred to the necessity of better communicating agriculture policy more effectively to European citizens, and finally commented on the Council’s main subject: direct payments in the future. He underlined the necessity to reward European farmers for their high production standards which make it more costly to produce in Europe than in other parts of the world. Baecke also explained that historical references are not adapted to the situation of young farmers who want to address the challenges of the future instead of looking back. He outlined CEJA’s main political priorities at present, such as developing ideas on successful tools and instruments for a common future agricultural policy. The Commissioner responded to Baecke’s intervention by saying she hoped that “CEJA will continue giving fresh input into the discussions and contribute in its usual progressive and forward-looking way”.

followed the entire Informal Council programme in the delegation of Ministers, State Secretaries, the Commissioner and the President of the Parliament’s COM-AGRI. The different activities gave him important opportunities for direct contact with decision makers in the agricultural sector right at the very beginning of his CEJA career. Many participants showed great interest in CEJA’s work and are looking forward to increased collaboration in the future.

Another very positive sign for CEJA was that the entire Vice-Presidency and the Secretary General were invited to join the programme for other delegates, among them the Commissioner’s Cabinet, highlevel representatives from Agriculture Ministries and the leading figures of the European Council Secretariat.

During farm visits, as well as a cultural programme, many important contacts were made and the new CEJA board members even got the chance to meet their Ministers during the common programme.

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

© Inga Klawitter

17

CEJA President and General Secretary meet with Czech

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

young farmers | Joris Baecke and Inga Klawitter also capitalised

on their trip to the Czech Republic to meet with representatives from the Czech young farmers organisation SMA CR. Petr Mares, Pavla Kratochvilova and Michal Vecerek met with the CEJA delegation in Brno to discuss current agriculture policy issues as well as upcoming CEJA activities. Discussions centred on one of the “hot topics” of the Informal Council, namely the future of direct payments for the agriculture sector as well as training and advisory services, production structures in the Czech Republic and cooperation between farmers.

The meeting was a great opportunity for CEJA to better get to know the faces behind our national organisations and to personalise the contact.

Sweden, 13th - 15th September 2009 CEJA President Joris Baecke speaks to Agriculture Ministers during Informal Council in Växjö | CEJA was also

invited to participate at the Informal Council meeting of Agriculture Ministers that took place from the 13th - 15th September in Växjö, Sweden. CEJA President Joris Baecke, CEJA Vice-President Ingrid Pettersson and CEJA Secretary General Inga Klawitter travelled to Scandinavia to join the different delegations during their farm visits on Monday, 14th September, highlighting practical climate-related measures taken by the agriculture and forestry sectors in Sweden. With climate change being the main subject of the Informal Council, the participants visited a forestry farm, which displayed the importance of forests to the climate through carbon sequestration and the production of various biofuels. Participants also visited a typical Småland farm with organic milk production and many climate-smart features. On the 15th September, CEJA President Joris Baecke was invited to address EU Agriculture Ministers on young farmers’ approaches to climate change, before discussing the impact of climate change on agriculture and the role that agriculture can play in curbing climate change in more detail. Baecke stated that young farmers “will make up the generation that will be most effected by the consequences of climate change”. Furthermore he reiterated that young farmers were aware of the weather challenges awaiting them and that they were ready to play an important role in facing this new situation and contributing to the mitigation of climate change. However, Baecke also made very clear that investments into new, “climate-smart” technologies are often expensive, especially for farmers who are still in the process of setting up their agricultural businesses. Therefore, he urged the Ministers to come up with appropriate measures and tools to support the next generation of European farmers in their adaptation and mitigation efforts and to fully use the 70.000 Euros provided for their installation in the Health Check.

We as young farmers need to adapt our farming methods in order to provide a future for society, for ourselves and our families. We know that agriculture is also contributing to climate change through Green House Gas emissions.

Mitigation is therefore needed.

Young farmers are not blind for that and ready to play their part in the process.

CEJA President Joris Baecke at the Informal Council of Agriculture Ministers on the 15th September 2009 in Växjö, Sweden

© Inga Klawitter

18

G8 and G14 G8 agriculture meeting organised in Rome

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

On the 18th and 19th March, former CEJA President Giacomo

Ballari and Secretary General Inga Klawitter were invited to attend a historical meeting in Rome, which was linked to the preparation of the G8 summit, scheduled to take place in Italy the following July. As part of the preparations for this summit, Coldiretti organised a special G8 meeting for agriculture. The leaders of agricultural organisations from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the USA came together to work on a declaration that was later handed over to the Agriculture Ministers of these countries. The Ministers then discussed the paper during their meeting in April in Treviso.

Newly elected CEJA President attends first G8 Agriculture Ministers meeting On the 17th April 2009, the International Federation of Agricultural

Producers (IFAP), in collaboration with the Italian farmers’ organisation CIA, held a meeting of G-14 farm leaders in the mountain village of Pieve di Soligo in the Province of Treviso, Italy. The meeting sought to give farmers a voice at the first G-8 Agriculture Ministers meeting which took place in the same region the following day. CEJA President Joris Baecke was present in Treviso from 18th-20th April and attended the preparatory meeting of this G8.

The summit’s purpose was to address the food crisis, where population growth in developing countries combined with rising energy and agricultural raw material prices has lead to ever increasing food prices which are not affordable for the world’s poor. Continued fluctuations in prices will cause millions of people to starve. Some of the proposals discussed in Treviso aimed at increasing agricultural production in developing countries in order to better balance supply and demand and thereby reduce food prices, to ensure transparency in the food chain, to limit speculation on agricultural markets through greater regulation and to make the food reserves of larger producer countries available to other nations. The summit brought together representatives of a great number of organisations, including the African Union (AU), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the United Nations’ (UN) High Level Task Force on Food Security, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP). “As young farmers, you can be part of the solution to the food crisis and this is why these summits are important for CEJA”,

Joris Baecke emphasised.

“We want to have enough safe food to continue to feed our planet’s population tomorrow, so young farmers must be able to establish their businesses today.”

This is the message CEJA wants to bring across to the Agricultural Ministers of the G8!

CEJA Contact with the European Parliament and the European Commission CEJA and the European Commission: Newly elected CEJA Presidency meets with Commissioner Fischer Boel for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mariann Fischer Boel, in order to introduce the new CEJA board. CEJA President Joris Baecke gave an overview of issues that were to be treated by European young farmers in the coming months. All over the year 2008, and especially during the seminar on young farmers and the future of the CAP, first ideas on instruments and tools for young farmers in agriculture policy after 2013 had been developed. This work continued in 2009, accompanied by discussions around the future budget that will be needed for the implementation of these instruments. Another CEJA priority discussed was intensified communication with European citizens in order to better explain why agriculture funding is crucial and what it is used for. Young farmers can play an important role in changing society’s image of farming. Other subjects that came up in the exchange with the Commissioner were the role of consumers and the lack of transparency in the market. All participants of the meeting (the Commissioner was accompanied by the Director of DG AGRI, Jean-Luc Demarty, as well as important members of her Cabinet) agreed that collaboration with consumer organisations is crucial and that the lack of transparency in agricultural markets causes great problems in the food chain. Redistribution of added value in agriculture is often not coherent with the realities in the farming sector and young farmers therefore need to reinforce their activities for a more balanced market situation. The Commissioner concluded the meeting by saying that she hoped that CEJA would continue to work in its proactive and forward-looking way.

CEJA and the European Parliament: Meetings with several MEPs in the second half of 2009 On the 1st October 2009, the CEJA board started their monthly

Presidency meeting with several appointments in the European Parliament. MEP Daul, President of the European People’s Party and long-term CEJA friend made room for a meeting in his very busy schedule without hesitation in order to meet the new CEJA board. After an introduction of the Presidency members, the discussion quickly turned to the crisis in the dairy sector and the general agriculture market situation. The future of the CAP naturally followed these first subjects and MEP Daul encouraged CEJA to communicate young farmers’ ideas to the COM AGRI. According to his observations, COM AGRI members are the most aware of the important role the next generation of young farmers will play and are very interested to hear

© Inga Klawitter

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

On the 1st June , the CEJA Presidency met with the Commissioner

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

19

© Inga Klawitter

20

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

CEJA’s ideas. MEP Daul urged us to start a deep discussion and some real thinking for the future of the CAP and was keen to have a follow up meeting to discuss these ideas in more detail.

Two spontaneous meetings followed with MEP Silvestris and MEP de Lange. In both meetings, the discussion mainly focused on the young farmers’ report that had been developed by the European Parliament in 2008. Both MEPs showed great interest in follow-up activities on this report and wished to stay in close contact with CEJA. The first meeting took place with MEP George Lyon, rapporteur of the CAP report that is supposed to be presented to the EP Plenary before the summer of 2010. After one hour of discussions around the ideas from our recently developed position paper, CEJA was invited to bring in further input to the EP document in the future. Joris Baecke and Inga Klawitter then met with former CEJA member MEP Elisabeth Köstinger a meeting that had been planned for a long time but never took place due to busy agendas on both sides. The CEJA delegation congratulated the MEP for her election, especially because she is one of the youngest members in the new Parliament. MEP Köstinger is very much familiar with young farmers’ issues from her work for Austrian young farmers and promised to support the ideas from the EP report whenever possible. This time, a meeting with COM AGRI chair Paolo de Castro was also possible. After a general exchange on the future of the CAP and young farmers’ situation in Europe, President Joris Baecke invited him to the next CEJA seminar in Spain. MEP de Castro promised to take part in the young farmers’ congress and to introduce new ideas on his upcoming book. The last meeting for the day took place with the assistant of MEP Ester de Lange. Since the MEP had been shadow rapporteur for the report on young farmers in 2008 we had decided on a follow-up meeting during our first exchange with the entire CEJA Presidency in October. This time there was more time to explain CEJA’s ideas on the future CAP in detail and to develop an approach to make use of the report on young farmers in the future.

On the 30th November 2009, CEJA President Joris Baecke and Secretary General Inga Klawitter met with several MEPs to discuss CEJA’s ideas on the future CAP and steps to be taken for followup on the European Parliament’s report on the situation of young farmers from 2008.

21

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

CEJA has enjoyed fruitful partnerships with many organisations throughout 2009 – collaboration with the CERYC and the Eastern EU member states has been highly rewarding, while contact with partners such as COPA-COGECA, IFAP and RYE has lead to meaningful cooperation on key agricultural issues and has strengthened the voice of young European Farmers. In this chapter you can learn more about such initiatives.

The CERYC Project in 2009 Since 2007, the continuous cooperation between CEJA and CERYC has helped to strengthen the links between the two organisations.

Young farmer organisations from the New Member States knew each other before the start of the project, but their cooperation was rather spontaneous, and related to smaller projects, visits or events. As soon as official cooperation was launched, their relations were deepened and gained a new sense of direction. Positions and political motivations are now better understood and a dedicated team of specialists helps them to cooperate and work more efficiently.

One of the major goals of the CERYC project was to strengthen young farmer organisations through cooperation and best-practice exchanges. As Central European countries do not share the same experience of democratic traditions and interest representation as the old European member states, it is difficult for the different young farmer organisations to develop their structures: Not only do they have to cope with scarce financial resources but even the mere foundation of an organisation presented many obstacles in Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia. The Slovak independent young farmer organisation was founded as the first one in the beginning of 2008, followed by the establishment of the National Young Farmers Association of Bulgaria in March 2009. In Romania, an organisation with regional scope is now at an advanced stage. As the oldest of the three, the Association of Slovak Young Farmers (ASYF) has the most experience and already set up their own projects. The FEELS international project financed by the Leonardo Programme is of particular note here. However, a lot more experience still needs to be gained, especially with regard to team building and organisation management.

Two events were organised in Bulgaria and Romania in 2009 which resulted in the foundation of young farmer organisations in these two countries. A longer article on the Bulgarian event can be found below. For the event in Romania, only 15 local and 15 international participants were expected and the organisers were positively surprised by the great interest in the event with a final number of 79 local participants.

Since 2007, the continuous cooperation between CEJA and CERYC has helped to strengthen the links between the two organisations.

Establishing professional and personal relations improved communication and facilitated everyday work.

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

CEJA PARTNERS

Another successful application for European Commission funding helped to organise a series of four workshops. These workshops aim to attract young farmers as well as representatives from local government and enterprise since it is important to not look at young farmers as isolated entities, but key players in local areas. It is therefore necessary for local NGO’s, local enterprises and governments to learn about each others’ goals and priorities in order to thoroughly consider the decisions they make, which have an inf luence on all parties.

The goal of the first workshop held in Slovenia (5th- 7th November 2009) was to promote cooperation between local government, NGO’s and entrepreneurs. It was followed by a Slovak workshop (3rd- 5th December 2009) where CEJA President Joris Baecke was present. The event focused on EU Rural Development Policy and on how to make best use of national resources. Two other workshops are scheduled for 2010 in Romania and Hungary.

Other CERYC events in 2009 included a workshop in Bikal (23rd 27th August) on Rural Youth Work in Hungary. A three-day study trip presented to the participants the rural activities in the SouthTransdanubian region, as well as giving them the opportunity to meet with youth organisations, advisory councils and governmental services. The participants appreciated the contact with motivated young people since the lack of motivation is often a problem in youth initiatives. Furthermore, one of the most important questions throughout Europe at the present time is whether agricultural organisations will succeed in keeping young people in the countryside and thereby preserve a traditional rural lifestyle. The development of local youth communities is also important for the development of local democracy.

Youth communities are contributing to the vitality of rural areas and it will be important for them to establish wider national and European cooperation.

Strengthening the relations between the old and the new member states has always been the main priority of the CERYC. One could observe a changing attitude amongst EU-15 organisations since the beginning of this collaboration, as they had a chance to familiarise themselves with the life of rural youth in the new member states. Due to this fact, young farmers from the old member states now pay more attention to the events organised by the new member states.

It is important that farmers continue to enjoy their work.

As form filling and regulation increases in its frequency, farmers must not shy away from the land. Training and advisory facilities can help them to cope with the administrative burdens they face, while a stable rural community can provide them with a social outlet and a distraction from daily life. It is therefore increasingly important for farmers to continue to innovate and cultivate so as to attract more young people to their areas, to create employment for the local community and for farmers to continue to thrive both on and off the land.

CEJA Vice-President Ingrid Petersson on “The Wellbeing of European Young Farmers”, University of Savonia, 4th December 2009 in Helsinki, Finland

© Inga Klawitter

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

22

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

2009 was a year full of activities and events for the CERYC. This does not mean that we can sit down and relax now - as time goes by, new challenges arise in our work. In 2010, our focus will be on the Common Agricultural Policy after 2013. Furthermore, two CERYC members, Poland and Hungary, are going to prepare for their upcoming terms at the head of the EU Presidency. Other partners will focus on developing their organisations, as the establishment of the aforementioned independent young farmers’ organisations is only a first step in this process. The operation and continuous management of an organisation requires more energy and more hard work. Apart from the development of the newly formed organisations, CERYC will also attempt to create links with young farmers from Croatia and Serbia. CERYC does not yet have partners throughout the Central European region and many opportunities remain untapped for both CERYC and CEJA. More on this in the next edition of the CEJA activity report!

CEJA Presidency visit to Romania in January 2009 In the beginning of 2009, the Romanian young farmers followed in the footsteps of the Slovakian young farmers’ organisation, by setting up their own national representation. To better understand the agricultural situation in Romania, several farm visits were organised as well. Some of the main production sectors in the Romanian region of Transylvania are the potato sector and the dairy sector. The CEJA Presidency was therefore introduced to local potato and dairy farms, as well as a milk cooperative. Short visits to a sheep and goat farm, a forest centre specializing in mushrooms and a small aquaculture business also took place. On most of these farm visits journalists accompanied the European delegation, providing Romanian young farmers with a useful platform to publicise their work and establish their new association. Former Vice-President Peter Szasz explained CEJA’s activities to several journalists. Very early the next morning, the CEJA Presidency was introduced to the tradition of “pig killing” and former Vice-President Erik Jennewein made use of the experience that he had acquired from the days where he carried out the tradition on his own farm.

The visit to Romania also served as a preparation for the last three months of the outgoing Presidency and for the development of an outline of the global CEJA strategy for 2009 to assure a smooth handover to the new team who would follow. In this sense, all relevant issues for the Presidium and the upcoming General Assembly were discussed in detail and both meetings were thoroughly prepared.

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

ceja Perspectives

© Inga Klawitter

23

The CEJA Presidency visited Romania in January 2009 to further encourage local young farmers in the setting up their own organisation. They met many young farmers, as well as the President of the Regional Department, the former Environmental Minister and other important political figures.

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

The President of the new National Young Farmers Association in Bulgaria, Dimiter Dimitrov, welcomed the representatives from the Bulgarian Agriculture Ministry, Bulgarian Advisory Service Associations, the media and the many European young farmers that had followed their invitation to this first exchange on (young) agriculture in Bulgaria. The conference opened with several presentations from the National Dairy Board that had helped the young farmers a lot during their process of setting up. Their speeches on the agricultural sector in Bulgaria were followed by presentations from the Ministry, the Agricultural Advisory Service and the Bulgarian Paying Agency on their work in Bulgarian agriculture in general and more specifically with young farmers.

In the afternoon, CEJA Secretary General Inga Klawitter presented the work of CEJA as a European umbrella organisation and several other young farmers’ organisations shared their national experiences with the conference participants. The Romanian young farmers’ presentation was particularly interesting because of their very similar situation to that of Bulgaria, with the Romanian organisation having only been established a few months earlier. The presentations were followed by a very lively discussion.

Over the following weekend, the Bulgarian young farmers’ organisation had set up a rich programme with very different farm visits: from small family greenhouses to big dairy, poultry, sheep and goat farms, from vineyards to crop production but also “exotic” farms such as Californian worms production and a buffalo farm! Most of the visits were accompanied by the Bulgarian national TV and they dedicated their entire Saturday agriculture programme to young farmers and CEJA should now be well-known in the Bulgarian agriculture sector!

We would like to wish our Bulgarian colleagues all the best in their efforts. They have a great team as a base, with staff members working on projects and funding, public relations as well as the contact to the media, and therefore a very promising future!

© Inga Klawitter

CEJA Secretary General speaks at foundation of Bulgarian young farmers’ organisation

In March 2009, Bulgarian young farmers set up their national organisation. The CEJA office had been contacted by motivated young people a few months earlier and with the help of our partner organisation CERYC these young people founded their own farmers’ organisation… and already organised the first conference for young farmers!

© Inga Klawitter

24

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

25

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

From the 2nd-4th December 2009, CEJA President Joris Baecke and Vice-Presidents Rok Sedminek and Donato Fanelli travelled to Hungary and Slovakia. The programme started with an exchange on CEJA and CERYC activities with the Presidency of CEJA’s member organisation AGRYA. In the evening, a Hungarian dinner was served to taste typical Hungarian food and to exchange ideas in an informal setting.

On the 3rd December, CEJA President Joris Baecke was invited to speak at a meeting with Members of the Parliament from Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Croatia and Serbia attended the meeting. The CEJA President could inform the MPs on CEJA’s work and cooperation of young farmers within the CERYC project. AGRYA President Lajos Mikula then explained the CERYC project in more detail. The next meeting was at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development where Joris Baecke and Lajos Mikula exchanged ideas with the State Secretary on EU affairs, Barnabás FORGÁCS, on farming issues in general and young farmers in particular. This meeting ended with a press conference where the CEJA President further explained CEJA’s role and how our organisation works with European institutions in Brussels to defend young farmers’ interests. After this meeting with journalists, the delegation visited the official opening of a goose farm where goose liver is produced in a sustainable way. Near the farm, the delegation then had a lunch meeting with Sándor Font, President of the Committee on Agriculture in the Hungarian Parliament and József POPP, Director of the AKI Agro-economic Research Institute, before the departure of the young farmers’ delegation to Slovakia where they rejoined CERYC members for an informal meeting with different organisation leaders.

On the 4th December, a CERYC workshop took place in Busc, Slovakia, where CEJA President Joris Baecke and Vice-President Rok Sedminek joined the partners in the CERYC project from Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovenia. Balint Pem, President of the Slovakian Young Farmers Association, was among the many interesting people who gave speeches at this seminar and Joris Baecke spoke of European young farmers’ ideas on the result of the Health Check and the CAP after 2013. The workshop was a great opportunity to build closer links with young farmers in Hungary and Slovakia and many further events have been planned for the future.

© Inga Klawitter

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

CEJA delegation meets politicians and young farmers in Hungary and Slovakia

One of the recurring topics was the future of direct payments.

Joris Baecke explained that “the historical model of direct payments is not an appropriate way to support young farmers, since it does not reflect reality. It refers to the past instead of looking forward, promoting progress and development.”

© Inga Klawitter

26

COPA-COGECA Farmer demonstrations during European Council meetings

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

Throughout the month of June, milk farmers demonstrated in Brussels and created traffic chaos in the city. A large scale demonstration, organized by COPA-COGECA, then took place on the 22nd June during the meeting of Agriculture Ministers in Luxemburg. Several thousand farmers came from all over Europe – even from as far as Latvia or Slovenia – and over 500 tractors gathered from neighbouring regions.

CEJA President Joris Baecke was invited to speak at the meeting point, a podium which had been assembled in front of the Ministers’ meeting venue. More than 20 Presidents and high-level representatives from COPA-COGECA’s member organisations addressed the farmers and received a lot of approval and applause. The CEJA President made some concrete proposals in his speech, asking the Ministers to use the total amount of funds that are provided for the installation of young farmers and were recently raised from 55.000€ to 70.000€ in the Health Check in all European Member States. “Young farmers believe in their future, they have a great passion for their profession but need the appropriate tools to become the future of agriculture and the future food producers in Europe!” Joris Baecke concluded.

After the demonstration, Luxemburg CEJA members invited the CEJA President, the Secretary General and the Slovenian delegation for a tour of their farms. All would agree that the Luxemburg organisations and their representatives gave CEJA and its members a very warm welcome to their country!

It would be good if the Ministers could see what I am seeing now: Thousands of food producers who have come to Luxemburg to express their concerns for the future of agriculture in Europe. And also many young farmers! Governments need to increase the respect for food and farmers in the eyes of the public. And with this respect comes a fair share of the money distributed along the food production chain. Only in this way farmers can maintain their production and provide the food for the growing world population. Young farmers are motivated to start their careers but we need a strong agriculture policy for this! The members of the organizations we represent produce the daily food for millions and millions of families. We, as European farmers, provide society with the most important thing in life, with safe food. And we do not ask for much in return.

We only ask to be able to keep our businesses, our farms, in a sustainable way… and to provide our families a decent way of living.

CEJA President Joris Baecke at the demonstration during the Council meeting of Agriculture Ministers on the 22nd June 2009 in Luxemburg

Ifap’s young farmers committee From the 28th - 30th July, the 2009 IFAP World Farmers Congress took place in the beautiful setting of Dublin Castle located in the heart of the Irish capital. Lively discussions came up in the different commodities meetings on dairy issues, cereals, meat and feed as well as on tropical products.

On the first day of the Congress, young farmers and women from rural areas met in two different sessions to discuss their specific priorities and ideas. The young farmers’ meeting was opened by the host of the meeting, the new President of the Irish young farmers’ organisation, Michael Gowing from Macra na Feirme, who also responded to several questions from the participating young farmers that had come from all around the globe to discuss current agriculture issues and common interests. The President of IFAP’s Young Farmers Committee, Kati Partanen, then summarized the ideas from the last meeting in Poland in summer 2008 and gave an overview of IFAP’s activities since then.

In the first panel, representatives from the different regions were asked to give their views on strategies for facing price volatility.

Jeunes Agriculteurs President William Villeneuve took the floor for Europe, while Asia was represented by an Indian young farmer, Africa by a representative from Malawi and Latin America by IFAP’s young farmers’ Vice-President from Uruguay.

After lunch break the meeting focused on two concrete examples of fruitful collaboration amongst young farmers. IFAP’s young farmers Vice-President Daniel Moronge from Kenya spoke on their successful cooperation with NAJK in the Netherlands while CEJA President Joris Baecke explained the structure of CEJA, its functioning and activities. After the discussion of the final declaration, the meeting ended with an example of successful risk management from Canadian dairy farmers.

Throughout Europe, farmers are demonstrating almost every day because they can not make their living any more with what they earn from food production. At the same time, consumers don’t really feel that they pay less for their food and I would therefore like to ask: Where is all this money? At CEJA, we have been asking for more transparency in the food chain for a long time and we appreciate that the European Commission has now finally decided to do a study on this subject – we are closely following its outcome and hope that distribution along the food chain will be organized in a fairer way afterwards!

CEJA President Joris Baecke during the IFAP young farmers meeting on the 28th July 2009 in Dublin, Ireland

© Inga Klawitter

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

IFAP World Congress of Farmers and Young Farmers meeting

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

© Inga Klawitter

27

28

© Inga Klawitter

Rural youth europe

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

CEJA participates in General Assembly of Rural Youth Europe (RYE)

On the 6th August 2009, CEJA Secretary General Inga Klawitter accepted an invitation from Rural Youth Europee (RYE) to participate in their General Assembly. The meeting took place in the context of RYE’s 2009 Rally which mainly focused on youth participation and rural development. It aimed to give young people from different rural areas in Europe an opportunity to come together and share their ideas and experiences of rural youth development. The “Brain drain” from rural to urban areas, from poor member states of the European Union to richer ones, low access to information, the low level of participation of rural youth in national and European youth policies, and the current economic crisis were just a few of the concerns that were addressed during the youth exchange.

Inga Klawitter thanked RYE for their invitation which was an important occasion to re-launch the long-term collaboration between our two organisations, who share a common objective: the improvement of living conditions in rural areas to avoid further desertification and making these areas more attractive for young people. However, it also became very clear where the differences of our two organisations lie: RYE members are not politically motivated. The proposal from the German Rural Youth organisation BDL to reinforce RYE’s activities with the European institutions and engage more in lobbying activities for young people’s rights and possibilities in rural areas was thoroughly discussed but then rejected by a large majority. Nevertheless, the CEJA General Secretary did not give up on the idea of common initiatives and proposed to look for shared subjects of interest, such as employment in rural areas or healthy, quality food and to try to reinforce ideas through a common position or communication. Another interesting way of collaboration might be to take up the idea from the European Parliament report on the future of young farmers and use the communication channels of both networks for promotion of a European year on rural-urban dialogue.

The RYE General Assembly was an important occasion to meet with some of our members, but also to meet with organisations that are no longer CEJA members due to their primary focus on rural youth activities. With the help of the 2008 CEJA activity report and through personal exchanges, CEJA’s objectives and activities were explained to the English, Welsh, Northern Irish and Latvian young farmers’ organisations. The General Assembly was also an important occasion to get back in touch with our Estonian observer member.

Whenever I travel or meet people from everywhere in the world one thing strikes me: Wherever we come from, or work with, no matter what education we have received or what is our background, we all have one thing in common: We all eat food - produced by farmers.

CEJA Vice-President Ingrid Pettersson during an EESC conference on least favourite areas, on the 25-26th May 2009 in Tallinn, Estonia

29

CEJA PROJECTS

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

CEJA is active in the fields of education and research and sees the training of farmers as a key priority in the future development of European agriculture. In the following chapter you can learn more about our push for the diversification of agriculture through our participation in the Agri-Multifunctionality II project, as well as CEJA training activities.

Agri-Multifunctionality II T

he Agri-Multifunctionality II project was launched in cooperation with partners from Granaforma, ASAJA from Spain, CIA from Italy and IFLS from Germany in April 2009 as part of the Lifelong Learning Programme under the EU’s Leonardo Project.

Following the success of an Agri-Multifunctionality I project, which focussed on the diversity of agricultural activities in Ireland, Italy and Spain, it was decided to take the project a step further, by extending its breadth to all CEJA member organisations in 21 EU Member States.

The project, which aims to finds interesting case studies of farmers who have diversified their agricultural activities through so-called “multifunctional farming”, will encourage young farmers to derive their income from multiple sources. There is no clear strategy at the present time for boosting multifunctional farming at European level and CEJA believes that the Agri-Multifunctionality II project will play a vital role in the promoting awareness of agri-multifunctionality in the EU institutions.

The project is also very timely, as economic crisis still hurts our members, and it is envisaged that the data gathered will provide a vital best-practice and educational tool for aspiring multifunctional young farmers. The project will continue until early 2011, when an official report of the project’s findings will be presented in five languages (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish) at a public launch at the European institutions, and a potential seminar, where the data gathered will be discussed, and disseminated to European policy-makers, and the material published, alongside that of AgriMultifunctionality I, on a purpose-built website.

The term “Multifunctionality” covers a wide range of activities which diversify mainstream agricultural production and income. Some of our most striking examples to date include care-farming, agri-tourism and Californian worm farming!

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

Multifunctionality and Young Farmer training

30

of the Agri-Multifunctionality II project in Granada, Spain. CEJA was entrusted with the vital task of sourcing interesting case studies on multifunctional farming activities and one of the first steps taken at this gathering was to set clear parameters for farmer questionnaires, in order to obtain the most precise and relevant information from our member organisations. Dissemination and communication strategies were also discussed at length, as well as incentives for young farmers to participate and to share their information with the wider public.

A Committee was established to filter case studies and to choose the best three examples of multifunctional farming from each CEJA member country. It was aimed that 63 case studies would be collected in total, providing a vast array of resources to CEJA members, and those would access the project’s online information platform. This meeting set the project in motion, and fixed a date for the next meeting in Brussels in November 2009. In the interim, fruitful email exchanges would facilitate the smooth running of this project and a first document on “Multifunctionality – State of the Art” was published as a project base.

Agri-Multifunctionality II meeting, November 2009 On the 5th – 6th November 2009, CEJA hosted the second meeting

of our Agri-Multifunctionality II Project partners at our Brussels office.

The group had a busy agenda, as they gathered to discuss and evaluate questionnaires received within the seven-month period since their last official meeting. Examples of multifunctional agriculture submitted

by CEJA member organisations were analysed and ranked in order to choose those which would form the basis for our publication. The selection process enabled us to proceed to the next step of developing the selected case studies and gaining more thorough and detailed information from the selected young farmers.

The attendees examined with interest the examples provided, demonstrating active young farmers in the pursuit of important environmental, social and economic activities such as direct selling, rehabilitative farming activities and camel farming! An interim progress report was presented at this meeting and the project team will continue collecting examples of multifunctional farming into early 2010.

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

On the 16th – 17th April 2009, CEJA participated in the first meeting

CEJA Secretary General Inga Klawitter at the Launch of Macra na Feirme’s partnership with IFAC Accountants & Macra’s rejoining of CEJA on the 20th November 2009 in Dublin, Ireland

As an advocate for sustainable rural development, CEJA strives to highlight the important social and economic function of agriculture in rural areas, its potential to create employment on a local and regional level, and, above all, its ability to bind communities together. Therefore, CEJA works closely with many partners in Brussels, such as the European Rurality Movement, the Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and the European Commission Advisory Group on Rural Development to ensure the survival and revival of rural areas. We are especially proud to have received one of the very few places for NGOs in the newly founded European Network for Rural Development.

On a practical level, CEJA is engaged in many exciting research initiatives, such as our ongoing project on multifunctionality that explores the many ways in which European Young Farmers have diversified their activities, both for economic gain, and to serve the wider community. We have discovered examples of farmers running school farms, offering activities to elderly people in rural areas or managing rehabilitative care farms – and hereby showing the willingness of farmers to get involved in the community and to think outside the box in an effort to simultaneously generate income and improve their own local areas.

© Inga Klawitter

Agri-Multifunctionality II launch meeting, April 2009

Training sessions for young farmers

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

workshop in Tournai, Southern Belgium. This picturesque setting provided perfect surroundings for our communication workshop.

Former FJA Vice-President Xavier Bourgeois was on hand to provide a guided tour of Tournai, a town which boasts a large agricultural community and a beautiful town hall sometimes used for agricultural events.

Together with our communications trainer, the participants took part in several group exercises and communication games before brainstorming on effective networking, liaising with government officials, Ministries and interests groups as well as exploring how best to represent and defend the interests of both CEJA and its members.

National representatives shared their own opinions and experiences of communicating with decision-makers in their home countries and the participants learned much from each another’s approaches and experiences in this area. There was a consensus that the support of local Members of European Parliament was essential going forward in order to promote awareness of young farmers’ activities, and training on lobbying was proposed for further training sessions. Members also worked on the compilation of a CEJA toolkit, incorporating the most pressing needs of member organisations to improve their communication strategies. The CEJA toolkit continues to be a work in progress, with a redesign of our website scheduled to incorporate an internal member portal.

In the end of the training, participants had the opportunity to visit two Walloon farms, where they observed the famous Belgian Blue heifer, and shared techniques on carrot and potato growing, as well as sampling the finished product through the delights of Belgian frites! All would agree that the weekend was a great success and a very positive and productive experience!

© Inga Klawitter

ceja Perspectives

On the 3rd-4th October 2009, CEJA held its first member training

Our governments should finally understand that it is important to support the next generation of farmers – that only makes up 8% of the total farming population in Europe!

– because we have to assure the food for a growing world population. We need the right policies and financial support for the growing number of services that society asks us to fulfil, as well as for profiting from new opportunities, for example through a more efficient collaboration with research institutions and a better transfer of knowledge.

Don’t keep the knowledge in the universities and on bookshelves but get in direct contact with young farmers, see where it is actually needed in the farming sector.

“The world can not be fed without young farmers!

CEJA President Joris Baecke at the IFAP Young Farmers Committee meeting, on 28th July 2009 in Dublin, Ireland

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

31

Ceja Publicity

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

Participation in Agricultural Fairs Throughout Europe CEJA’ s participation in European agricultural fairs provides a key means of garnering support for our positions and our members, as well as for financial support for CEJA activities. In this way, CEJA becomes a visible actor in the field of European Agriculture and gains recognition beyond the agricultural sphere, in the fields of enterprise, industry, energy and innovation. In this chapter you can read about our participation in Europe’s largest agricultural fairs and the positive impact of such activities on CEJA’s work.

CEJA at international food and agriculture fair “Grüne Woche” in Berlin In January 2009, CEJA Secretary General Inga Klawitter travelled

to Berlin to take part in one of the largest agriculture fairs in the world, to reinforce direct contacts with representatives from German CEJA member BDL and to make many other important contacts.

Together with former CEJA Vice-President Erik Jennewein, the first important meetings took place at a high level reception organised by the agriculture marketing agency CMA. The event was by no means restricted to German policy makers and agricultural representatives but also involved many familiar faces from the Brussels political scene.

CEJA forged strong links with potential sponsors over the weekend through distribution of the CEJA activity report and further information on our organisation’s work was distributed to the general public.

German CEJA member organisation BDL organises an interesting programme for young - and older - people every year, with discussion rounds, speeches, and the nomination of the finalists of different competitions around agriculture as well as a theatre play dealing with rural life. Some of the German members wanted to know when the first European theatre play will see daylight and Inga Klawitter promised to propose it to CEJA’s members - once the language is decided upon first! On Saturday night, a party was organised with over 3000 young people from rural areas and CEJA members from Austria and Luxemburg, as well as representatives from Rural Youth Europe, were also present. Unfortunately, the CEJA Secretary General could not attend the high-level BDL discussion forum on Monday due to important engagements in Brussels; however she thoroughly enjoyed this event and saw CEJA participation as a great way to further our work.

© Inga Klawitter

32

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

CEJA at Biofach for workshop on Technology Platform Organics

CEJA Secretary General at agriculture fair in Paris

In February 2009, the CEJA Secretary

On the 27th February

Genera l t ravel led to Nu rem berg, following an invitation from the newly established Technology Platform (TP) on organic farming. This platform had been launched in December 2008 in the Czech representation where former CEJA President Giacomo Ballari gave a speech and underlined the importance of reinforcing young farmers’ link to the research sector.

2009, the CEJA Secretary

In Nuremberg, the Czech Agriculture Minister and his State Secretary were once again very active in their support of the technology platform as well as other IFOAM activities.

BIOFACH is the world’s largest organic fair with 2900 exhibitors from around the world. Many interesting conferences took place, followed by the workshop meeting for the organic research platform on Saturday morning. The participants brought together many interesting ideas that were integrated in the strategic research agenda of the TP Organics.

The main lines that have been identified for the research platform are 1. Empowerment of rural areas, 2. Eco-functional intensification and 3. Food for health and well-being. CEJA is so far mainly involved in the first mainline and has brought up important subjects that were missing in context with European young farmers, such as, for example, the need for infrastructures in rural areas to keep (young) farmers in these areas or young farmers’ worries about a very high bureaucracy burden, taking into account that cross-compliance rules already demand a high amount of paper work.

The participants were very interested in CEJA’s ideas and would like to increase exchanges with young farmers – not only organic but also conventional ones.

General went to Paris for fol low-up meet i ngs w it h Jeunes Agriculteurs on their seminar in France and a visit to their stand at one of the biggest agriculture trade fairs, the Salon International de l’Agriculture (SIA). Events are regularly organised such as the handing over of awards to very active young farmers by the French Agriculture Minister in person. Some of the winners are well known to many of CEJA’s members: two examples are Samuel Marechal, who is very active in CEJA as well as IFAP activities and Carole Doré who introduced the working group on installation to the CEJA Presidium 2009. The CEJA Secretary General also used her visit to the SIA to take up contacts with people at the European Commission stand as well as other interesting exhibitors and distributed the CEJA activity report and information on the organisation.

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

ceja Perspectives

© Inga Klawitter

33

© Inga Klawitter

34

CEJA at Agritechnica

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

On the 12th November 2009, CEJA joined 350,000 visitors from

across Europe at Agritechnica agricultural trade fair in Hanover, Germany. Our schedule was jam-packed with events, starting in the morning with CEJA’s Environmental Working Group at the Hanover Conference Centre. Representatives from the CEJA Presidency, the CEJA office, and member organisations were joined by academic, institutional and industry experts in the discussion and debate around climate change and agriculture. Dr. Christian Lukner of the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft (HTW) Berlin explained his new academic programme on climate change for engineers at HTW Berlin, an initiative which aims to educate engineering students on the impacts of climate change, and to work with different sectors, such as agriculture and industry, in the course of their research. Marco Pezzini, Secretary General of UNACOMA was also on hand to discuss the impacts of climate change on companies in the agricultural machinery sector. He welcomed an exchange of information on sustainable agriculture and renewable energies and outlined UNACOMA’s desire to work with young farmers in the organisation of a seminar on such topics at the agricultural fair in Bologna, Italy, next year. Dr. Theodor Friedrich, Conservation Agriculture Expert at the FAO, explained the huge potential for adaptation and mitigation of the effects of climate change through carbon sequestration, crop rotation and a “no till” policy in arable farming. He stressed the need for “education and political support” for farmers in the pursuit of climate-friendly farming practices. Mr. Friedrich was also one of the chief organisers of the World Soil and Water Show at Agritechnica, where world irrigation and tillage experts unveiled new tillage and irrigation solutions to cope with increasingly dry conditions in arable farming.

The CEJA team then had the opportunity to survey the thousands of colourful exhibits on farm machinery, navigation technologies, scientific and technological devices, bioenergies and renewables on display in the exhibition halls. The CEJA office had the opportunity to meet and greet many influential producers in the agricultural machinery industry, to forge contacts and to spread the word on CEJA’s work.

Panel discussion: My Farm. My Ideas. My Future

CEJA organised a discussion workshop with one of its member organisations from Germany, the BDL, and the young farmers section from the DLG entitled “My farm.

My ideas. My Future.” CEJA President Joris Baecke addressed hundreds of young farmers at this workshop on CEJA’s vision for the future of European Agriculture and our work at European level. The conference then heard the views of six young farmers from New Zealand, USA, Canada, Spain, Germany and Russia as they gave their accounts of the challenges facing them in their specific sectors. These presentations were very interesting and diverse, featuring a wide variety of farming operations such as GMO crops in the USA, share milking in the dairy sector in New Zealand, range farming in Canada, olive farming in Spain, constructing farming installations in Russia, and innovative potato growing in Germany.

The presentations were followed by a lively panel discussion, with many comments and questions addressed to the speakers from the floor. The workshop was a great success and provided a unique insight into the changing face of agriculture.

The day concluded with a popular “Young Farmers Party” as 3000 young farmers partied until the early hours of the morning to the best of German music and hospitality. A great day was had by all involved and there are many fond memories of the event.

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

Even though I am a farmer myself - together with my father I run an arable crop farm in the Netherlands, and so I’m relatively close to Hanover, this is my first time at Agritechnica. It’s always very interesting to see new technologies and equipment, and to get new ideas for your business. My father also likes to go to these fairs, but somehow my mother seems to make sure that we never go together, without her. Maybe that’s to make sure the majority of the decisionpower in our farm isn’t shopping here together....

The topic of this panel really explains the situation of young farmers, or young agri-entrepreneurs like we also call ourselves in CEJA. “My Farm, My Ideas, My Future”. With this title the organisers - and I want to complement them for this choice - really underline the essence of the decision young agri-entrepreneurs take nowadays when they decide to start or take over a farm. It’s YOUR farm, YOUR business, you are responsible, and you are the beneficiary. Your ideas will sculpture the way your business will look like in the future. You are at the steering wheel, not only of your tractor, your business, but also of your future.

And I am convinced that this is one of the reasons why people choose to become a farmer: the entrepreneurial lifestyle, being able to work in the countryside, with your crops or animals, being your own boss.

CEJA President Joris Baecke during the young farmers panel discussion at Agritechnica, on the 12th November 2009 in Hanover, Germany

© Inga Klawitter

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

35

36

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

In a time of negative news stories, particularly in the field of agriculture, CEJA would like to end our review of 2009 on a positive note. The prospect of Macra na Feirme’s re-entry to CEJA, and our new partnership agreement with Rabobank, provide a welcome distraction from the gloomier news stories of 2009. In this chapter you can see how CEJA ended the year on a positive note!

Irish young farmers organisation Macra na Feirme expresses interest to rejoin CEJA in 2010

On the 20th November 2009, Secretary General Inga Klawitter travelled to Dublin to speak at the launch of Macra na Feirme’s partnership with IFAC Accountants – the Irish Farm Accounts agency. The purpose of this partnership is to facilitate Macra the rejoining of CEJA. In the meantime, an official request for CEJA membership has been received which will be presented to the CEJA General Assembly in 2010.

At the European Parliament Offices in Dublin City Centre, Macra President Michael Gowing welcomed the meetings’ participants, including two former Irish CEJA Presidents, Seamus O’Brien and Larry Fallon. IFAC CEO Willie Fahey urged Irish farmers to actively participate in European agricultural policy, and praised CEJA’s role in representing young farmers at European level. Mairéad McGuinness MEP gave her views on European Agriculture and the challenges facing young farmers, such as climate change, food security and the dangerous level of control held by supermarket chains over their agricultural producers. Seamus O’Brien, former CEJA President and current chairman of IFAC, then gave an inspiring speech, recollecting his time as CEJA President, the influential figures he met through his position and the many friendships formed as a result of the experience. Finally, CEJA Secretary General Inga Klawitter addressed the participants, looking back at the negotiation phase together with four different Presidents from CEJA and Macra and looking forward to fruitful collaboration in the future, after the official welcoming of the old-new CEJA member by the CEJA General Assembly.

The event finished with a cheese and wine reception, with the best of Irish produce, and all in attendance left with a renewed sense of optimism to fight the challenges ahead.

© Inga Klawitter

CEJA perspectives for 2010

Our organisations are both working hard to ensure that European young farmers can help to shape the future of European agriculture and will continue to be key food producers in the global marketplace. This is particularly important at a time when young farmers are feeling the pressure of decreasing commodity prices, a strong Euro, the abolition of the quota system in the dairy sector, a general trend towards liberalisation of markets, a modified direct payment regime and many new challenges relating to climate change, biodiversity loss, an increase in environmental, sanitary and economical crises - and all this under working conditions that that have become increasingly global in nature and put European farmers under increasing pressure. Moreover, consumers are asking for ever higher product standards without being necessarily willing to pay the corresponding price for these goods.

CEJA Secretary General Inga Klawitter at the Launch of Macra na Feirme’s partnership with IFAC Accountants and Macra’s rejoining of CEJA on the 20th of November 2009 in Dublin, Ireland

Rabobank and CEJA establish strong working partnership

ceja People

ceja Positions

ceja Politics

ceja Partners

ceja Projects

ceja Publicity

ceja Perspectives

A fter several meetings in Brussels and Utrecht, Rabobank and CEJA have decided on a working partnership for one year with the possibility of extension in 2011. Rabobank is an international financial services provider operating on the basis of cooperative principles with a clear focus on food and agribusiness. From its century-old cooperative roots in the Netherlands, Rabobank has grown into one of the safest banks worldwide with offices in the major food and agribusiness countries. One of the first projects CEJA and Rabobank will work on are Rabobank’s Food and Agribusiness Principles, which are being discussed with clients and stakeholders worldwide. “It is clear that the food and agribusiness chain can only become more sustainable if all parties involved, including banks, customers, members and stakeholders, join forces and work together. This is why Rabobank has formulated five directional Food & Agribusiness Principles. Creating a long term relationship with our clients to make them frontrunners in their operating sectors is one of our key objectives in discussing these Principles with them, but also with organisations like CEJA”, said Thomas Ursem, Head of Rabobank International’s Corporate Social Responsibility department.

Rabobank’s Caroline Steenvoort, Head of European Retail Development, and CEJA President Joris Baecke signed the agreement on the 16th December 2009 at the head office of Rabobank in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Concluding the meeting, CEJA President Joris Baecke stated that establishing this partnership was an important step in the development of CEJA. “European young farmers have to work as entrepreneurs when they look for partners for their businesses, partners who can provide them with specific knowledge, support and input to improve their production methods in a sustainable way. As an organisation for European young farmers, CEJA has to do the same.

Establishing this partnership with Rabobank gives CEJA access to the specific knowledge Rabobank holds in the field of food and agribusiness while CEJA can share with Rabobank the views of over one million European young farmers on important agricultural topics. CEJA and Rabobank International share the interest of supporting European farmers in the challenges they have to face now and in the future.

This makes our partnership feel like a ‘natural fit’.”

C E J A | 2009 A c t i v i t y R e p o r t

© Inga Klawitter

37

CEJA MEMBERS AUSTRIA LANDJUGEND ÖSTERREICH (LJO) Schauflergasse 6 AT-1014 WIEN Tel: 00 43/1 53 441 8560 Fax: 00 43/1 53 441 8509 oelj@landjugend.at www.landjugend.at Presidents: Johannes KESSEL and Monika ZIRKL Secretary General: Sonja Pamperl BELGIUM GROENE KRING Waversebaan 99 BE-3050 OUD HEVERLEE Tel: 00 32/16 47 99 98 Fax: 00 32/16 47 99 95 info@groenekring.be www.groenekring.be President: Leen Schrevens Director: Herman STEVENS FEDERATION DES JEUNES AGRICULTEURS (FJA) Chaussée de Namur 47 BE-5030 GEMBLOUX Tel: 00 32/81 60 00 60 Fax: 00 32/81 60 05 27 fja@fwa.be / www.fwa.be President: Gary Vanvinckenroye Secretary General: Grégory ETIENNE CYPRUS CYPRUS YOUNG FARMERS ORGANISATION COUNCIL (CYFOC) P.O. Box 21096 CY-1501 NICOSIA Tel: 00 357/22 762 395 Fax: 00 357/22 762 372 cyfoc@cytanet.com.cy President: Panayiotis PANAGI Secretary General: Christos KOURTELARIS CZECH REPUBLIC YOUNG AGRARIANS SOCIETY OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC (SMACR) Štepánská ̌ 63, CZ-110 00 Praha 1 Tel: 00 420/2 24 21 87 60 Fax: 00 420/2 24 21 87 62 smacr@smacr.cz / www.smacr.cz President: Pavel MOULIS DENMARK LANDBOUNGDOM Udkaersvej 15, Skejby DK-8200 ÅRHUS N Tel: 00 45/87 40 50 00 Fax: 00 45/87 40 50 10 LNM@landscentret.dk www.landboungdom.dk President: Michael PEDERSEN Secretary General: Jette RIIS

design: www.41109.be

FINLAND CENTRAL UNION OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCERS AND FOREST OWNERS (MTK) Simonkatu 6, PL 510 FI-00100 HELSINKI Tel: 00 358/20 41 31 Fax: 00 358/20 41 32 409 firstname.lastname@mtk.fi www.mtk.fi President of Young Farmers: Jukka OJANTAKANEN Secretary General: Aino SILLANPÄÄ FRANCE JEUNES AGRICULTEURS (JA) 14, rue La Boétie FR-75 382 PARIS cedex 08 Tel: 00 33/1 42 65 17 51 Fax: 00 33/1 47 42 62 84 npoisson@jeunes-agriculteurs.fr www.cnja.com President: William VILLENEUVE Secretary General: Jérôme VOLLE Director: Magali ARDILEY

GERMANY BUND DER DEUTSCHEN LANDJUGEND (BDL) Claire-Waldoff-Str. 7 DE-10117 Berlin Tel: 00 49/30 31 904 253 Fax: 00 49/30 31 904 206 info@landjugend.de www.landjugend.de Presidents: Gunther HIESTAND & Anne HARTMANN Director: Matthias SAMMET GREECE PANHELLENIC FEDERATION OF YOUNG FARMERS’ organisations (GESASE) Arcadias 26 Mesogion, EL-11526 ATHENS Tel: 00 30/210 77 117 11 Fax: 00 30/210 77 10 157 intergesase@gesase.gr www.gesase.gr President: Christos PANTZIOS Secretary General: Nikos LAPOS HUNGARY AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL YOUTH ASSOCIATION (AGRYA) Váci út 134/C. VI.28.

HU-1138 Budapest Tel/Fax: 00 361/320 04 29 agrya@agrya.hu / www.agrya.hu President: Lajos MIKULA ITALY ASSOCIAZIONE GIOVANI IMPRENDITORI AGRICOLI (AGIA) Via Emanuele Gianturco 1 IT-00196 ROMA Tel: 00 39/06 36 12 915 Fax: 00 39/06 32 62 98 96 b.dirollo@cia.it / www.agia.it President: Gianfranca PIRISI Secretary General: Barbara DI ROLLO ASSOCIAZIONE NAZIONALE GIOVANI AGRICOLTORI (ANGA) Corso Vittorio Emanuele II n. 101 IT-00186 ROMA Tel: 00 39/06 686 98 50 Fax: 00 39/06 685 22 27 anga@confagricoltura.it www.anga.it President: Marco SARACENO MOVIMENTO GIOVANILECONFEDERAZIONE NAZIONALE COLDIRETTI Via XXIV Maggio 43, IT-00187 ROMA Tel: 00 39/06 46 82 394 Fax: 00 39/06 46 82 393 arianna.giuliodori@coldiretti.it www.coldiretti.it President: Donato FANELLI Secretary General: Carmelo TROCCOLI LITHUANIA Lithuanian Young Farmers Union K. Donelai cio ̌ g. 2-205 LT-44213 Kaunas Tel: 00 370/37 40 93 75 Fax: 00 370/37 40 03 50 Ljurs@zur.lt / www.zur.lt President: Pranas Zymancius

LUXEMBURG CENTRALE PAYSANNE Service jeunesse 44, rue de la Gare / B.P. 48 LU-7501 Mersch Tel: 00 352/32 64 64 530 Fax: 00 352/32 64 64 481 info@lbj.lu / www.lbj.lu President: Christian WESTER Secretary General: Pascal Bosseler LËTZEBUERGER JONGBAUEREN A JONGWËNZER (JB & JW) 5 Avenue Marie-Thérèse LU-2132 LUXEMBOURG Tel: 00 352/447 43 252 Fax: 00 352/447 43 563 landju@pt.lu / www.jongbaueren.lu President: Christian HAHN Secretary General: François GLODT The Netherlands NEDERLANDS AGRARISCH JONGEREN KONTAKT (NAJK) Postbus 816, NL-3500 AV UTRECHT Tel: 00 31/30 27 69 869 Fax: 00 31/30 27 10 577 jbaecke@najk.nl / www.najk.nl President: Wilco de Jong Secretary General: Machiel Kommers POLAND TRADE UNION - NATIONAL CENTRE OF YOUNG FARMERS (CCNMR) ul. Nowy Świat 18/20 PL-00-373 Warszawa Tel/fax: 00 48/22 828 18 31 cnmrbiuro@adkopl www.zzcnmr.pl President: Robert STEPIEN Director: Tomasz ŁUKOMSKI POLISH RURAL YOUTH ORGANISATION ON (ZmW) ul. Nowy Świat 18/20 PL-00-373 Warszawa Tel: 00 48/22 826 11 68 Fax: 00 48/22 826 44 55 zkzmw@zmw.pl zk@zmw.pl President: Michał modrzejewski Director: Tomasz panczyszyn PORTUGAL ASSOCIAÇÃO DOS JOVENS AGRICULTORES DE PORTUGAL (AJAP) Rua D. Pedro V, 108-2° Andar PT-1269-128 LISBOA Tel: 00 351/213 244 970 Fax: 00 351/213 431 490 ajap@ajap.pt / www.ajap.pt President: José FIRMINO CORDEIRO SCOTLAND SCOTTISH ASSOCIATION OF YOUNG FARMERS’ CLUBS (SAYFC) Ingliston, Edinburgh, UK-EH28 8NE Tel: 00 44/131 333 24 45 Fax: 00 44/131 333 24 88 natsec@sayfc.org / www.sayfc.org President: Lizzy Baxter Secretary General: Fiona BAIN

SPAIN ASOCIACIÓN AGRARIA JÓVENES AGRICULTORES (ASAJA) Agustín de Bethancourt 17, ES-28003 MADRID Tel: 00 34/91 533 67 64 Fax: 00 34/91 534 92 86 asaja@asaja.com / www.asaja.com President: Pedro BARATO JUVENTUDES AGRARIAS DE COAG c/Agustín de Bethancourt 17, 5a p.

ES-28003 MADRID Tél: 00 34/91 534 63 91 Fax: 00 34/91 534 65 37 coagmadrid@coag.org www.coag.org President: Salavador RONCERO SWEDEN FEDERATION OF SWEDISH FARMERS (LRF) Franzéngatan 6 SE-105 33 STOCKHOLM Tel: 00 46/771 573 573 ingridlmp@hotmail.com President: John Enander Secretary General: Sabina Sandell OBSERVER MEMBER ESTONIA ESTONIAN YOUNG FARMER ORGANISATION (MTÜ) Teaduse 1, Saku 75501 Harjumaa Tel: 00 372/56 617 616 noortalunikud@hot.ee youngfarmers@hot.ee President: Vahur Vingisaa

CEJA | European Council of Young farmers 23a Rue Belliard, Bte 8, B-1040 Brussels Tel. 00 32-2 230 42 10 Fax 00 32-2 280 18 05

SLOVENIA SLOVENIAN RURAL YOUTH ceja@ceja.be ASSOCIATION (ZSPM) Celovška 43, SI-1000 Ljubljana www.ceja.org Tel/Fax: 00 386/1433 12 70 info@zveza-zspm.si www.zveza-zspm.si President: Urska SENCAR Ce rapport est aussi disponible en francais