Food and Nutrition in the 21st century
8-9 September 2011 | Warsaw, Poland
CONFERENCE
FOOD AND NUTRITION IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Date: 9 September 2011
Venue: Warsaw, the Castle Square, the Royal Castle
The conference on Food and nutrition in the 21st century is organized jointly by Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Research Institute of Horticulture in close cooperation and substantial financial support of European Commission (DG Research and Innovation).
The general objective of the conference is to identify major challenges facing European agri-food industry. It will provide a forum for discussion the role of science and research
in addressing these challenges particularly in the area of food, agriculture and bio-economy.
The specific objective of the conference will be to identify major trends in food and nutrition research area and to provide some recommendations for European research and innovation policy in this area, taking into account the urgent need to address grand challenges such
as food safety and climate change.
It will gather all stakeholders important for development of agri-food sector, including researchers, industrialists, civil society and policy makers.
The food and drink industry is one of the most important industries in EU. It produces
965 billions € worth of goods, which accounts for 12.9% of total manufacturing turnover and 2% of EU’s GDP. It employs over 4.4 million workers, which constitutes 13.5%
of employment in the EU’s manufacturing sector.
The food industry, besides its economic importance, has also crucial role in maintaining European citizens’ health and wellness. Inappropriate and bad- balanced diet usually leads to serious health problems and disorders (overweight, obesity or heart and coronary system diseases).
Further development of the European food industry faces serious challenges.
Its competitiveness is decreasing, which is mainly due to a high labour cost in EU and other environmental and social constraints, but also due to low innovativeness. Serious challenges pose also global climate change, which may result in significant reduction of food crops due to decrease of water resources for agricultural production and occurrence of new pests and diseases of plants and livestock.
The European Union recognizes well the importance of the challenges facing the food industry and human nutrition. They have been addressed in the “Europe 2020” strategy and other strategic documents. However, there is still a need for a throughout discussion of all the aspects of food and nutrition research policy with major players, specially taking into account excellent momentum, i.e. work on new Common Strategic Framework on Research and Innovation.
