#03 Contemporary Scholars Conference, or Companionship Spirit and Commitment

February 28th, 2015, marked the start of the 2015 Contemporary Scholars Conference (CSC). About 75 professionals from various sectors related to agribusiness gathered in Reims, in the Champagne-Ardenne region, France, to discuss the future of world agriculture and the development of an innovative and dynamic agricultural sector.

This was the first contact with other scholars, Nuffield representatives in each country, and with actions taken by the organization in global collaboration. Jean Lonie, US Nuffield representative, gave us the perfect definition for the conference in her first speech: we were all there to have our minds stretched, our concepts confronted and our vision expanded. It is a true exercise in understanding the many spheres and realities around agriculture that we do not realize exist.

Since always, people who take on the responsibility of change have determined History. This is one of the conference’s major goals: preparing the next generation of leaders in agriculture through a combination of the most relevant and current guidelines of global agribusiness (succession, sustainability, overpopulation, management, among others).

It was seven days of intense work, meeting people from all around the world, studying, discussing, idealizing... All the content was very valuable and instructive, but let’s make an immersion here to the events most prominent to me.

Day 1: timeline of my life. Basically, we set up a graph in which the X axis marked years of life to date of birth, where we would put decisive events in our history (good and not so good), and the Y axis marked the scale of importance of such facts. It was an excellent exercise to reflect our life up to that moment and use it to introduce ourselves to other scholars.

Day 2: a presentation by Edwin Van Raalte, the first and, personally, most current and complete speech about the dilemmas surrounding the future of agriculture. We discussed the issue of global food crisis, under the central premises of population growth (158 people born per minute in the world), waste (if all the wasted food came from a country, this would be the 3rd economy in the world) and succession (every 20 years, the number of farmers is reduced by half). According to Edwin, the average growth in agricultural production is 1.4%, while the estimated rate is 1.75%.

Edwin Van Raalte and the future of farming

The waste topic has different perspectives depending on the nations development. In developed countries, waste is mostly high among final consumers, while in developing economies the biggest waste is throughout the value chain, highlighting the need of production and logistics improvement.

Day 3: visit to the Agro-Resources and Industry (IAR) cluster/Cristal Union. IAR supports business models based on the principle of biorefining, which means commitment to the full use of plants (there are no unused matter). Its benefits involve the exclusive use of renewable raw materials, supplies independence from fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions reduction, elimination of agricultural inputs waste and support for the economic development of areas affected by industry migration.

Jean-Marie Chauvet guided the tour, with prior introduction of Olivier De Bohan, president of Cristal Union, cooperative representing over 40% of all beet produced in France, for ethanol and sugar production.

Jean-Marie Chauvet during the IAR's cluster visit

Day 4: the fourth day was personally one of the most interesting, as we enter the agenda of genetically modified material, its advantages and restrictions. Marie-Cécile Hénard, agronomist and economist responsible for innovation and markets in the saf agr'iDées organization, discussed the breakdown in communication between science and agriculture, and its impact on the society perception. Generally, the agencies responsible for the formulation and establishment of laws are far from agriculture and its reality.

This makes the adoption of genetically modified organisms (GMO) to take deep inequality in diverse countries, creating impediments to global trading and construction of a legal regulatory framework more unified and cohesive. In addition, technologies originated in countries where most of the population is against GMO usage tend to exclude this important tool from the process, such as agroecology, of great importance in France, that is under the belief that optimization of agro-ecosystems and biotechnology are exclusive.

France, also according to Marie-Cécile, imports about 30 million tons of GM soybean every year to produce animal feed. It is observed, therefore, how the information transmitted may be outdated, and how it impacts the final consumer choice, which supports the ban on research in biotechnology for agriculture (mainly in Europe).

Day 5: very special presentation by Jean-Pierre Beaudoin, former president of the i&e Group. We were questioned about the way we communicate, and if we achieve the objectives targeted through communication. Jean-Pierre emphasized the disconnect between common ideals of urban people and rural men. Stereotypes point to the consumer as multifunctional, urban and "spoiled". Meanwhile, the rural man is seen as a "cliché", oblivious to the social issues that do not cover agriculture and subsidized, unable to be completely autonomous in his business.

As a partial result from these prejudices, Jean-Pierre points to 30% of global food waste and people’s inability to distinguish rational from reasonable, or relationship from communication. It was a real awakening to us all.

Jean Pierre Beaudoin discussing communication

Day 6: a very interesting and relaxed conversation with Geraldine Weber, Fanny Mingam and Pierre Martin, members of Bio3G, on the encouragement of leadership through development of personal skills. The main points to establish leadership parameters are: do what you say and say what you do, take risks, adapt to change between generations, value ​​the knowledge of employees, pay attention to people, devote yourself to them and encourage them to develop their creative, imaginative and emotional skills.

A workplace of collaboration and trust in each other is important to build an environment of respect and joy.

Very special dinner at Mumm

Day 7: in the seventh day, closing this amazing week, we were divided into groups of five to seven people to discuss and propose changes in central themes of global agriculture. The group that I participated with discussed the role of farmers in building new markets in developing countries, a very relevant subject to Brazil.

We came to conclusions (though not definitive), that it is necessary to understand the market and better access to it, to direct cooperation and organization among producers from different countries, developing a win-win relationship, to adopt technology (access to and adoption of) and to promote higher market value retention of agricultural commodity to producers, softening its use as a speculation weapon.

It was a great way to encompass all topics discussed in this week of intense work.

Debriefing activity

I could not imagine a better way to be introduced to the Nuffield scholarship but by the CSC. I met dozens of smart, dynamic and successful people, so willing to share their knowledge, studied the global agriculture from different perspectives and, indeed, had my conceptions confronted numerous times. More importantly, I made friends. Friends for life. I felt accepted and welcomed by all Nuffield members, and left Reims in mid-March with the certainty that this will be a year of hard work, joy and partnership.
All presentations can be found here as well as photos of the event.