ORGANICS IN THE COUNTRIES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN AT SANA ON THE 13TH SEPTEMBER THE INTERNATIONAL IFOAM AGRIBIOMEDITERRANEO CONFERENCE

September 2015

Four days that will bring together 144 organizations from three continents, Africa, Asia and Europe and 16 countries that face onto the Mediterranean. Beginning on the 10^th September and then moving to Bologna on the 13^th, the IFOAM AgriBioMediterraneo international conference “Agro-ecology for organic agriculture in the Mediterranean” will conclude at SANA, at the heart of the national and international organics scene. The conference will further encourage scientific dialogue, the exchange of information and the spread of strategies for the transfer of knowledge and innovation in organic agriculture, especially in the Mediterranean area.

The event will enjoy the participation of key figures from the international scenario of agro-ecology and organic agriculture that, a quarter of a century on from the first international conference on organic agriculture in the Mediterranean - a milestone in the development of organic agriculture in Italy and in Europe that gave life to the section IFOAM AgriBio Medieterraneo – and in the year of the Universal Exhibition with organic agriculture taking centre stage at the Organic and Natural Pavilion at Biodiversity Park, the themed area at EXPO organized by BolognaFiere - will promote a model of organic agriculture designed to achieve  excellence in food production, based on typical produce and the diversification of cultivation, the safeguarding of biodiversity, the multifunctional nature of the agricultural businesses that, by shortening the production chain become key drivers of rural sustainable development that includes the socio-economic benefits both for farmers and for all those involved in the sectors connected to agriculture, such as the transformation of products and rural tourism.

The concluding work of the IFOAM AgriBioMediterraneo International Conference will bring, to the International Exhibition of Natural and Organic Products, the debate and the work on organic agriculture launched by the associations of Italian and international organics at Biodiversity Park on the 16^th May with the launch of the International Organic Forum “Organic can feed the planet” in order to highlight the role of organics as an innovative and strategic sector to develop food agriculture in a sustainable, fair and tangible way, a sector that is able to feed the planet in the future.