Presentation by Hanna Pohlmann and Silke Flörke at the Agrarbündnis conference "Fruit and vegetable cultivation in a changing climate: major importance, many challenges"

On June 5, 2024, our colleagues Hanna Pohlmann and Silke Flörke presented the "Organic Climate Vegetables" project at the Agrarbündnis conference on fruit and vegetable cultivation in a changing climate. The project aims to develop climate-adapted production methods for organic vegetables and to identify potential for a climate-adapted regional value creation network for organic vegetables in North Hesse.

A number of things need to be considered: From the field to the finished product, there are many different players involved in ensuring that fresh organic vegetables are available in the supermarket, at the weekly market or in the subscription vegetable box. Reconciling customers' wishes with the production conditions in a changing climate is no easy task. Extreme weather events can cause entire harvests to fall through or the vegetables to look different. If harvests in other regions are increasingly disappearing, it actually makes sense to produce more vegetables in northern Hesse. Nevertheless, the carbon footprint must also be taken into account here, as local food systems are not always better than global ones.

Together with practitioners from production and trade, the participants discussed how local fruit and vegetable cultivation can be strengthened. Particularly impressive were the descriptions of the food waste that occurs in the field and in the wholesale trade because the vegetables do not look quite perfect.

In his article about the event, Jens Brehl from "über bio" highlights the tense situation for organic vegetable production.