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Youth Ag Summit Day 1 - This extraordinary event brings together 100 delegates from 33 countries, with a simple, common goal: Feeding a Hungry Planet.


Australia
August 24, 2015

“We want to bring young leaders together to exchange ideas, their expertise and also to share this passion for what really drives us to feed this planet, this global population.
We believe that innovation really stems from creativity, but also collaboration and, I can’t stress it enough, also passion for what you do.”

And with those words, the 2015 Youth Ag Summit was opened in Canberra by Bernd Naaf, Member of the Bayer CropScience Board of Management. This extraordinary event brings together 100 delegates from 33 countries, with a simple, common goal – Feeding a Hungry Planet.

The event is being hosted by Bayer along with the Future Farmers Network (FFN) and follows the inaugural summit in Canada in 2013.

FFN chair Georgie Aley says the aim in bringing together some of the brightest minds from around the world is to provide a platform to discuss both the challenges and opportunities of feeding a hungry planet.

“What we want to see at the end of this week is 100 inspired minds to go back into their community, into their regions all around the world and continue the conversation.
I guess if we can create a platform that allows them to come together and inspires them to share their stories, then we’ve really achieved a fantastic outcome,” Georgie explains.
The start of Day One saw Julie Borlaug take the stage to speak about the legacy of her grandfather, Norman E Borlaug, called the ‘Father of the Green Revolution’ and a Nobel Laureate for a lifetime of work feeding a hungry world – her message perhaps best summed up with the quote “don’t just think outside the box, but if need be, re-imagine it!”

The delegates then were introduced to the ‘3 Little Things’ challenge, which involves each delegate listing three ideas they want to take back to their home countries to make a difference.

Marcus Gorlich from Germany says the ‘3 Little Things’ challenge was one of the topics that impacted him the most today.
“I really like this idea and I’ve already been thinking about how I can do this at home in Germany - I’d like to reduce food waste at home, and I’d also like to invite people to come to our farm so I can explain to them what agriculture is about and how we produce the food that makes them happy every day,” Marcus says.

The afternoon was focussed on essays written by delegates about food security issues across different regions and cultures. The concept over the week is to whittle down the topics to the top five through voting, with those selected to form the UN Canberra Youth-Ag declaration.

The declaration will be presented to the United Nations in Rome in October 2015 as South African delegate Nicola Theron explains.
“The declaration is going to be a summary of this week and I think it’s important so other people from around the world will understand more what’s happening and where their food comes from and help address food security in the world,” she says.

Monday evening sees the conference head to the National Gallery of Australia for a cultural dinner ahead of a packed Day 2, which will see delegates start to drill down into mega-trends impacting world agriculture, before the conference’s ‘Solutions Marketplace’ opens in the afternoon.

For Nicola Theron, it’s already been a very big first day, with her words no doubt summing up the thoughts of many in the room.
“Words can’t describe it – I like it because it’s challenging me. It’s nice to hear other ideas and other problems in other countries – maybe I can learn from you and you can learn from me and we can go back to our countries and be the difference you want to see in the world,” Nicola concludes.



Published: August 24, 2015

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