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How do we find Common Ground when rapid change is needed? Local sovereignty and peace are directly interrelated with just food systems around the globe, ultimately creating healthy ecosystems, for healthy people and communities.
To overcome our presumed divisions, at the 7th World Organic Forum 2024 we discuss inclusive, non-dogmatic approaches, synergistically integrating the many diverse agricultural concepts towards regenerating agrifood ecosystems while giving back agency to the farmers and people working on the land.
The World Organic Forum is a global conference on development and agricultural policy at Schloss Kirchberg (Kirchberg Castle), which takes place over several days in Kirchberg / Jagst in Germany. Since 2023, the Akademie Schloss Kirchberg (Academy for Organic Agriculture and Food) has increasingly focused on agro-economic and agro-cultural aspects of the 2030 Agenda in addition to development policy aspects at the World Organic Forum. The 7th World Organic Forum 2024 will focus on the triad of organic farming, agroecology and regenerative agriculture. The conference is intended to provide a platform for considering all three agricultural concepts in terms of their potential and contribution to increasing climate resilience and as tools for ecological, economic and social value creation.
Particular attention will be paid to the contribution that "the markets", i.e. economic actors and companies, can make to the (climate-resilient) transformation of value chains and networks within the various concepts. In addition, questions of measurement, certification and evaluation of (agricultural) economic, social and ecological services will also play a role. We will take a critical look at the contribution that the three agricultural concepts mentioned can make in this context and where their limits lie or where bright and dark spots are. A deeper look into the cultural and socio-ethical foundations of the agricultural concepts is intended to determine which social values and which understandings of nature and landscape design underlie the concepts in each case. We are looking forward to welcome divers preeminent global speakers and shapers. André Leu from Regeneration International, Helmy Abouleish from SEKEM Egypt, Mayor Rommel Arnado from the Arms to Farms Program in the Philippines, Janet Maro from Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania, Sheelah Bearfoot from Poetry for Planet, Simon Krämer from the European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture and many more have already confirmed their participation. In addition to Germany's membership of the Agroecology Coalition and the coalition's impact leverage, lighthouse projects such as "Arms-to-Farms" in the Municipality of Kauswagan in the Philippines will also be presented, where, with the strong involvement of committed protagonists such as Mayor Rommel Arnado, organic farming has succeeded in bringing peace to a region torn apart by civil war.
It is particularly important to Akademie Schloss Kirchberg to facilitate new synergies and partnerships in its field of activity at the interface between agriculture, the food economy, rural regional development and global development cooperation. The aim is to create spaces characterised by openness and appreciation for indigenous cultures, agricultural practices and approaches to holistic ecological, economic, social, cultural and political value creation.
