All the BIOFACH Congress topics and forums

• Organic. Food Sovereignty. True Prices.
• Food: Sovereign and secure thanks to organics
• Remedy market failure and enable transformation with true prices

What can organics do for food security and sovereignty?
How can “true prices” – which include the ecological after-costs – pave the way for the necessary transformation of the food and grocery industry?

The conference focus will be designed jointly by IFOAM - Organics International, Bund Ökologische Lebensmittelwirtschaft (BÖLW, the Federation of the Organic Food Industry) and BIOFACH.

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Organic farming is undoubtedly the most sustainable form of food production, in harmony with nature, people, biodiversity and animal welfare. At the same time, organic farming is not a rigid self-contained system. The actors are innovative, open, and capable of development. It is about shaping the future in a sustainable way and finding answers to global challenges.

The BIOFACH forum offers the space to question concepts and strategies, to discuss instruments, (funding) mechanisms and innovations and to think further into the future:

• What will be the strategies and guidelines – old and new – for the future?
• "Out of the box": What exciting approaches to more resilient business practices can inspire the organic sector?
• How to make the organic farming system crises-proof, with regional, national and international supply chains?
• Advertising, design and packaging: How are marketing, ecologically friendly design and packaging evolving?
• Digital transformation as a strategy for the future?
• Innovations in control and integrity assurance of the organic sector?

What's next for the specialist trade? What changes are to be made? The Forum Fachhandel takes up the current questions and discusses with impulse givers how the organic specialized trade can successfully implement them:

• The organic shop as a brand: Which messages have the power to reach new customers?
• How can we rebuild a good collaborative environment with colleagues, employees, suppliers, buyers and customers?
• When regionality and short supply chains become more important than organic. What are the bio sector's answers? Competition for organic customers! Who buys where? What drives organic buyers? What are the unique selling points of the future?
• How does the organic trade position itself credibly and successfully as an ambassador of a qualitative development towards more sustainability?

Forum Fachhandel is a platform for dialoguing and exchanging experiences. We invite you to work up topics by and for practitioners, and also to bring in initiators from outside.

Sustainability has many facets. One-dimensional, economic action leads to a dead end.

• Examples and motives for courageous sustainability steps in the organic sector.
• How can we consistently operate sustainably, consistently apply the polluter-pays principle and assume responsibility for the environment and the next generation?
• How can sustainability be anchored in the consciousness and applied as a guiding principle in all areas and decisions?
• How can value chains be designed resiliently, taking into account all dimensions of sustainability (social, ecological and economic)?
• Where are there deficits? How does the current system need to evolve further so that organic practices finally become socially and politically viable as the future model for sustainable agriculture?
• How can (new) alliances be forged to fight collectively for sustainability under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

The Politics Forum generates awareness of the topics that quite specifically deal with shaping the regulatory environment for the ecological food industry. Operators in the industry, government policymakers and representatives of state agencies are invited to discuss their positions. After all, one thing is clear – whether as a farmer, manufacturer, importer, dealer, crafts worker or specialty retailer, everybody needs a stable, reliable regulatory environment so they can face the challenges of the future.

But what conditions are additionally needed so that agriculture and food production can be transformed in such a way as to achieve sustainability goals, doing business in harmony with global resources and within our planet’s limitations?

Expert knowledge is needed more than ever, including because the problems to be solved are getting more and more complex. There are enough scientific studies that show the benefits of ecological farming for the environment, the climate, and species diversity. But – organically based practices also have a wealth of questions that science needs to answer in order for the sector to achieve its full potential.

The Science Forum offers a platform for dialogue among scientists, practitioners and consultants. Research projects must be adapted to practical conditions, research results must be communicated and discussed with the industry. What are the implications of research results, and how can they be put into practice?

What’s needed is discussions about issues and research results in agriculture, processing, commerce, food quality and marketing.

With the Agriculture Forum, we put the concerns of farmers at the center of the discussion:

How can our agricultural and food system be transformed,

• ... that organic farms can afford it economically?
• ... that it is in the entrepreneurial interest of farmers to avoid harmful effects on climate, environment, biodiversity, animal welfare and human health?
• What measures help the farms apart from state support systems? - How can new organic farmers be recruited and retained in the long term?
• What societal strategies, cooperations and coalitions are needed to achieve the transformation of agriculture?
• What is the contribution of research?