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Eight world dairy leaders have launched a joint global initiative called 'Farming for Generations' to ensure the sustainability of dairy production. All members of the initiative will assess and collect the best and most recent solutions to enhance sustainability in the dairy sector, including cultivation and plant protection techniques or digitization, across all farm sizes and different agricultural structures. The initiative planned for the next 3 years will initially work with 25 dairy farms in the EU, the US and Russia to identify examples of good practice, and the number of cooperating dairy farms is expected to increase to 2500 after 2 years.
More information is available here.

The Spanish company NovaMeat, which has been working on the development of vegetable meat substitutes for a long time, has already introduced the second version of its steak alternative. Version 2.0 simultaneously shows the structure and appearance of beef. The technology based on “biotprinting” can fine-tune the structure of plant proteins at the microscopic level, is flexible and adaptable to the needs of producing vegetable meat alternatives with different textures from different ingredients. NovaMeat's next step is to develop a product with the texture, appearance and taste and nutritional value of beef. In the future, the company expects to sell technology to produce vegetable alternatives to meat and meat products.
More information is available here.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, confirmed on 08/01/2020 the EU's intention to remain a close ally of the United Kingdom after its withdrawal from the EU. According to Von der Leyen, the UK and the European Parliament should ratify the UK withdrawal agreement on 31/01/2020. According to the British Government, the aim of the government is a managed and fair transition to a system tailored to the needs of British farmers based on the principle of public finances, independent of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The transition should start in 2021 by reducing direct payments in the UK in a fair and progressive way. The money should be used to launch a national environmentally friendly pilot program for land management, so that strong environmental protection is maintained and high standards of food safety and animal welfare are not undermined. UK Finance Minister Sajid Javid pledged GBP 2.9 billion (EUR 3.4 billion) to support the UK agricultural sector in 2020. The aid package amounts to GBP 2.85 billion (EUR 3.36 billion) for 2020-2022.

Ministers of Environment met before Christmas at the Council of Ministers to discuss the proposal for a European Green Deal, which the Commission presented in mid-December 2019. They agreed on the commitment of the parties to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. During the ministerial meeting, Polish Environment Minister Michal Kurtyka said that for Poland, achieving carbon neutrality would be a longer and more difficult process than for most other countries. According to him, Poland will be ready to achieve carbon neutrality in the second half of the century. Environment ministers also discussed the financing of the European Green Deal - according to the Commission, a budget of up to EUR 100 billion should be provided for the transition to the rules of the European Green Deal (the financing plan should be published by the Commission on 14/01/2020). According to a number of ministers, funding should be provided from additional sources, not from budgets for Cohesion Policy and the CAP. Ministers also supported strengthening the protection of biodiversity.

During 2020, the European Commission should present an action plan to promote organic farming; according to representatives of the European Commission, work on the action plan is already at an advanced stage. According to the initial information, future support for organic farming should be based on demand rather than on mandatory supply - the action plan should therefore not include a mandatory acreage for organic farming. Farmers should adjust production and production costs in line with market requirements.