The director of the LIFE Olivares Vivos+ project, José Eugenio Gutiérrez, highlights that now is the time to bring biodiversity into the agri-food market
“Agriculture looks to nature; it depends on the ecosystem services provided by biodiversity, so agriculture that does not look towards that nature of which it forms a part is agriculture that will hardly be sustainable,” explains José Eugenio Gutiérrez Ureña, Head of Agri-food Systems and Rural Environment at SEO/BirdLife, director of the LIFE Olivares Vivos+ project and one of the main promoters of the 1st International Congress on Biodiversity and Agriculture.
“Scientific knowledge on how to use biodiversity as a tool for agricultural profitability has advanced enormously; at Olivares Vivos we have been carrying out intensive, high-level work for 10 years,” explains Gutiérrez, who stresses that it is not only a matter of providing knowledge on environmentally-friendly farming practices that are also economically profitable, but also of understanding how to bring that biodiversity into the market. “We have been pioneers in applying this model, but there are already many initiatives that have been developed along the same lines.”
At present, the expert adds, “we have more than 100 farms working with these new models; now it is time to move into action, and that is precisely what this congress is about: taking this knowledge into practice, into the field.” At this point, José Eugenio Gutiérrez points out that the great challenge is to introduce this sustainable model into the agri-food market, so that consumers also become key players in this change and so that “together we can change the way we produce goods and the way we feed ourselves.”
The 1st International Congress on Biodiversity and Agriculture thus becomes a key meeting point to bring together all the people and entities involved in this process of change, and a decisive step towards transforming the way we grow and produce our food.
