Programme

• Tony Van Leersum, McCain, SAI Platform Executive Committee Member, Introduction: main elements of SAI Platform’s approach and contribution to sustainable agricultural practices. what makes it unique? How does it ensure improvements over time? How has membership evolved/grown over time?
• Werner Buck, Friesland Foods, SAI Platform Dairy Working Group Chairman, Companies’ practical experiences: state of selected SAI Platform pilot projects.
• Peter Erik Ywema, SAI Platform Manager: future SAI Platform objectives and role.

Questions and Answers, Jean-Pierre Rennaud, Groupe Danone, SAI Platform Executive Committee Member. 

What do stakeholders involved in agriculture sustainability programmes consider to be essential elements of these programmes? What is their single most important achievement in this field? What has scientific assessment and specific benchmarking revealed? What is their own single most important challenge?

• Erik Mathijs, , Catholic University of Leuven
• Robby Schreiber, European Initiative for Sustainable Development in Agriculture
• Richard Perkins, WWF UK
• Marc Rosiers,Board Member, Vegaplan.be vzw
• Henrike Offeringa, Manager Marketing & Communications Business Support,"Utz Certified", worldwide certification programme, setting the standard for responsible coffee production and sourcing

Questions, answers and discussion

What development do stakeholders and public authority anticipate as regards sustainable agriculture in Europe? What are their main objectives and expectations? How can voluntary agricultural sustainability programmes support European policy approaches?

Session moderator: Mella Frewen, CIAA Director General

Roundtable debate with the following participants:

• Roger Cowe, Director, Context
• Nigel Garbutt, Chairman GLOBALGAP 
• Paul Temple, Chairman of the 'Cereals' working group, COPA-COGECA
• Jean-Pierre Rennaud, Groupe Danone, SAI Platform, Executive Commitee Member
• Michael Hamell, Head of Unit Agriculture, Forests and Soil, European Commission, DG Environment

Summing up of the day by the Conference Chairman

Conference chairman of the day: Soren Vogelsang, Danisco.

SAI Platform member companies will invite farmer representatives to discuss two issues:

• How have they organised the supply of a particular crop to the member company?
• How are sustainability aspects being introduced into these supply arrangements?

Speakers will be farmer representative or company representative who will briefly discuss the two questions, followed by a panel discussion.

• McDonald’s
  Company representative : Keith Kenny - Senior Director, McDonald's Supply Chain Europe
  Farmer representative speaker : Grazyna Nowak-Polomska - Quality Assurance Director, Farm Frites Poland
• Birds Eye
  Company representative : Liz Chadd, Sustainable Agriculture Manager
  Farmer representative, Robert Borrill, Forum for Sustainable Farming
• Danone 
  Company representative, Guillaume Thomas
  Farmer representative, André Bocquillone, Valfrance
• Lamb Weston/Meijer
  Company representative, John Wiskerke, Director Raw and Agricultural Services
  Farmer representative, Joris Baecke
• CIO
  Company representative, Paolo Segalla, Agronomist
  Farmer representative, Marco Crotti, President of CIO

Key to linking business success to agricultural sustainability is to make it relevant to consumers. Starting from a marketing perspective, participants are invited to discuss different types of marketing claims and propositions. What would trigger consumer's attention? Do we need to answer the question what sustainable consumption is? What is the role of labels and certificates? What level of verification would be required? What mechanisms would need to be in place for such verification?

• Roger Cowe, Director, Context
• Lipton Tea: partnership programme (Unilever)
  Michiel Leijnse, Global Brand Development Manager Lipton
• Nespresso: partnership programme (Nestlé)
  Karsten Ranitzsch, Nespresso Green Coffee Manager

Break out group discussions

Consumers need information to choose between products. If agricultural sustainability is indeed about making progress in agriculture towards sustainability, then how could such progress be measured and reported on, in a product relevant way? Could computer modelling be useful in this respect?

• Wal-Mart metrics network, David Pendlington, Unilever 
• Response-Inducing Sustainability Evaluation (RISE), Pr. Fritz Häni, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Swiss College of Agriculture, Zollikofen
• WWF views, Richard Perkins, WWF UK
• Oxfam Novib, Gine Zwart, Corporate Social Responsibility