Radical Thinkers Shaping the Future of Irish Agriculture

An ‘Out-of-the-Box Thinking’ workshop to identify a future direction for the agriculture and food industries in Ireland is taking place in Dublin, today, Wednesday 25 July. The workshop aims to present challenging and innovative ideas on the future trends and driving forces that will help shape the future agriculture, food and rural economy of this country.

The event is part of Teagasc 2030, a Foresight exercise designed to establish a broadly-shared vision for the agri-food and rural economy in Ireland in 2030.

Initiated in December of last year, Teagasc 2030 aims to identify the technologies, research and innovation required to underpin the development of farming and the food industry in the long-term. Under the chairmanship of Professor Seamus Smyth, President Emeritus NUI Maynooth, Teagasc 2030 will identify the knowledge requirements for the industry with a view to strengthening the strategic capabilities of Teagasc.

Today’s workshop brings together leading thinkers from France, Holland, United States, Germany, UK, Denmark, Belgium, and Ireland who will share their views on likely developments in the agri-food sector and outline possible  scenarios facing the sector.

Key stakeholders in the industry are debating how the key trends and drivers of change will shape the development of the agri-food and rural areas in 2030. A session on land use and how it will differ in the future examines contributions from Dr Willem Rienks from Wageningen University, Professor Frank Convery, UCD and Richard Douthwaite, Feasta, Ireland.

Another of the workshop sessions is looking at the role of science and technology and how it will contribute to changes in land use and added value. Valuable insights from Professor Martina Newell McGloughlin, USA, Professor Dietrich Knorr, Berlin University, and Dr Peter Smeets, Netherlands will help to identify long-term trends and guide decision making in the future.

The Teagasc 2030 project is expected to be completed in May 2008 and it will help to build the strategic capabilities of Teagasc as a science-based knowledge organisation and identify strategies that will maximise the impact of training and technology transfer.