Jan Plagge re-elected President of IFOAM Organics Europe
BRUSSELS, 21 JUNE 2023 – At today’s General Assembly, IFOAM Organics Europe’s membership elected a new Board and Jan Plagge as its President.
Following his re-election, IFOAM Organics Europe’s President Jan Plagge said: “It is my honour to be re-elected as the European organic movement’s President. These are challenging times, as the reduction of pesticides and the protection of biodiversity have become highly politicised and polarising issues, and many organic producers are facing a difficult market situation. Yet the transformation of our food system is more needed than ever and organic farming remains a crucial policy tool to green our agriculture and revitalise rural areas in Europe.”
“With the resolution adopted today,”, Jan Plagge continued “the organic movement clearly re-affirms its support to the EU Green Deal and to the Farm to Fork strategy. It emphasises how important it is to safeguard the possibility for a systemic approach to innovation, which is more efficient than short-term technological fixes to transition away from that an intensive high input agriculture model. For these reasons, and to protect the European model of breeding from patents, the vast majority of organic producers wants the organic production process to remain free of GMOs, including New Genomic Techniques (NGTs)”.
Dora Drexler, re-elected Vice-President, and Director of ÖMKI, the Hungarian Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, continued: “It is crucial to stick to an evidence-based approach to continue developing organic. If we want to reach the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies’ targets, policymakers should reinforce the EU’s research efforts dedicated to organic and other agroecological approaches.”
Marian Blom, re-elected Vice-President, and Knowledge & Innovation Project Leader at Bionext, said: “I am proud that the European organic movement gave me their confidence and re-elected me as Board member. I believe there is no simple and reductionist solution to the challenges we’re facing. We need indicators that measure sustainability in all its dimensions including biodiversity protection, pesticide use and climate change. Organic offers a systemic solution to complex problems.”
Immediately after their election, the Board conveyed these messages to Commissioner Wojciechowski, who was the first official guest at the Organic House.
Ends.
Contact details
Eva Berckmans, Communications Manager
+32 2 416 27 62, [email protected]
or visit www.organicseurope.bio
Background information
At today’s IFOAM Organics Europe General Assembly, 41 members from 19 countries joined – online and in person. Read our new Board members’ biographies in our media corner and have a look at the overview.
Jan Plagge was re-elected as President of Organics Europe. He is the President of Bioland e.V. and has many years of experience developing the organic sector. Jan has a background as an organic farmer and an organic farm advisor. He already served as IFOAM Organics Europe’s President for two term (2018-2020 and 2020-2023).
Also re-elected are both Vice Presidents of the Board are Marian Blom, Knowledge & Innovation Project Leader at Bionext, the Dutch umbrella organisation for organic food and farming and Dora Drexler, Director of ÖMKI, the Hungarian Research Institute of Organic Agriculture.
The sector representatives are:
- Sector representative for farming: Thomas Fertl, Head of Department Agricultural Policy at BIO AUSTRIA;
- Sector representative for processing / trade: Bernard Lignon, Regulations and Organic Product Quality Project Lead at SYNABIO;
- Sector representative for certification: Michel Reynaud, Vice-President of ECOCERT SA;
- Sector representative for retail: Lukas Nossol, Representative of Dennree Gruppe GmbH.
The other Board members that were elected are:
- Christopher Atkinson, Head of Standards at Soil Association;
- Aira Sevon, Council Member of Southern Finland Organic Farmers Association and Member of the Board of Directors of Kymi Organic Coop.
IFOAM Organics Europe is the European umbrella organisation for organic food and farming. With almost 200 members in 34 European countries, our work spans the entire organic food chain and beyond: from farmers and processors organisations, retailers, certifiers, consultants, traders, and researchers to environmental and consumer advocacy bodies.