Monheim, Germany
August 26, 2015

Carmine Caldararo (left) and Gerardo Graziano with the YouFarm award at the prizegiving ceremony in Canberra, Australia.

Sabrina Caldararo, Carmine Caldararo and Gerardo Graziano from Italy won the first prize with their video submission "A modern family farm". More than 40 videos from 20 countries were submitted for the first YouFarm International video competition, which was initiated by Bayer CropScience in 2015.

"We are grateful our video won out of such a wide range of international videos. Our aim was to give insights into modern Italian farming and the value of regionally and traditionally produced products. It’s great that the online community as well as the jury appreciated our concept," said Gerardo Graziano. Having been awarded the first prize, Gerardo and his brother in law will now start the "Farmers around the Continent Tour" through Asia. They will meet farmers, visit farms as well as a variety of agricultural sites and parks from tea plantations in Malaysia to vertical farms in Japan.

"The winning video clearly shows Sabrina’s and Gerardo’s passion for agriculture in an authentic and creative way by offering insights into the daily life of a farmer - from feeding cattle to the production of products," explained Beth Roden, Head of Global Communications at Bayer CropScience and member of the YouFarm jury. "And this is exactly what we wanted to achieve with YouFarm - sharing our passion for agriculture and offering farmers a platform to share their views on modern farming." Jury member Kenneth Baker, Chairman of the World Agricultural Forum, adds: "The video ‘A modern family farm’ remained true to the objectives of the competition, was bright, interesting and showed the family at work and engaged with the community around them."

Agricultural insights from around the globe

This year’s motto "Farm ‘n’ Family" called upon farmers from all over the world to help raise awareness and appreciation for modern agriculture through telling their personal story in the video competition. "The videos offer first-hand insights into the challenges farmers from different areas of the world are facing every day. We get to see the people and the passion behind the safe and nutritious food we eat," said Roden.

All participants realized their inspiring and individual farming stories in creative videos of which none are alike - from a banana plantation in Colombia or a cattle farm in New Zealand to a rice farm in Indonesia. The jury, consisting of agricultural and social media experts, selected the winner from a shortlist of 30 finalists that included the top ten videos of the online voting. Of those, the best 20 videos are being awarded.

The award ceremony and announcement of the winning video took place on August 26, 2015 at the Youth Ag-Summit in Canberra, Australia, where 100 young delegates discussed challenges and solutions for feeding a hungry planet. The places 2nd to 20th are being awarded material prizes such as camcorders or smartphones.

Find more information and the final ranking of the videos at http://www.youfarm.international.

About Bayer CropScience
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, agriculture and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience, the subgroup of Bayer AG responsible for the agricultural business, has annual sales of EUR 9,494 million (2014) and is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of seeds, crop protection and non-agricultural pest control. The company offers an outstanding range of products including high value seeds, innovative crop protection solutions based on chemical and biological modes of action as well as an extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture. In the area of non-agricultural applications, Bayer CropScience has a broad portfolio of products and services to control pests from home and garden to forestry applications. The company has a global workforce of 23,100 and is represented in more than 120 countries. 

Website: http://www.bayercropscience.com

Published: August 26, 2015