We are excited to reminisce about some special memories from AgriFood Forum 2023 in Vilnius, Lithuania, beginning with the tree planting that kicked-off this significant event! This initiative was a collaborative effort organized by GFarm for LIFE project’s coordinator AgriFood Lithuania and other partners, with the original idea of Life Terra Foundation.

Life Terra Foundation is a platform that collaborates with partners across Europe, empowering people to contribute to climate change mitigation. Their focus includes restoring degraded land, developing tree monitoring technologies, and educating future generations. The Life Terra project, developed under the LIFE programme and supported by the European Commission, shares common ground with the GFarm project, both working toward environmental sustainability.

The symbolic birch tree planting action provided an extraordinary opportunity to delve into the synergy of initiatives, particularly on the crucial topic of reforestation. This dialogue aligns seamlessly with the goals of GFarm and Life Terra projects.

It was a pleasure to meet Sven Kallen, the founder and secretary of an influential organization of Life Terra Foundation. Our insights on resilient and thriving forests and the importance of collaboration continued from the tree planting site to a dynamic panel discussion at the forum.

From the birch tree planting site to the Forum discussion stage

GFarm for LIFE team had an honor to take the main stage of the event, hosting a thought-provoking discussion “Zeroing In: Strategies and Synergies for a Carbon-Neutral Food Ecosystem” that left a lasting impact on the audience. It’s not every day that you can hear so much insight from top-level experts in one place!

In the introductory speech, Julia Nielson, Deputy Director of the OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate: brought to light the critical issue of emissions in the agricultural sector, framing the crucial theme. Among the honorable panelists were President of the European Clusters Alliance Antonio Novo Guerrero, Executive Director at Global Dairy Platform Donald Moore, Sustainability & Crop Value Chain Manager at International Seed Federation Ben Rivoire, Project Manager at Foodscale Hub George Papapostolou, Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture at Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania Kristina Simonaitytė, and Deputy Chairman at Linas Agro Group, CEO at AB Kauno Grūdai, and Chairman at PF Kekava Andrius Pranckevičius.

They unanimously acknowledged the absence of a singular solution to this challenge. However, experts emphasized that innovations can significantly contribute to measuring and reducing carbon emissions, with one condition: innovations must be the marriage between invention and market, so all of them must be applied to the market and be useful.

To sum up, this forum was a rare opportunity to absorb profound insights, collective wisdom, and efforts to act in a practical way. As we continue our journey towards a sustainable future, we extend our heartfelt thanks to all participants of the discussion and the tree planting initiative as well as the extraordinary panelists. Your presence and contributions have been invaluable in steering us towards a greener and more progressive tomorrow. Let’s keep planting the seeds of change!