European Beef Sector gather to drive sustainability

All actors and stakeholders in cattle farming and beef production are invited to attend BovINE’s online meeting to share knowledge and discuss the sustainable future of the sector. The online meeting on 2nd December 2021 is open to all.

European Beef Sector gather to drive sustainability

The 2^nd International Meeting of the EU funded H2020 network project BovINE is hosted by Estonian partner Liivimaa Lihaveis. The meeting brings together beef farmers, advisors, veterinarians, producers, suppliers, researchers, and policy players to share knowledge and exchange ideas to establish the sustainability of the European beef sector.

“On behalf of Liivimaa, Estonia is delighted to host this BovINE meeting at such a critical point in the sector’s history,” says Estonian Network Manager, Airi Külvet. “BovINE’s network across 10 countries enables access to existing and developing knowledge to improve not only animal health and welfare, but also environmental sustainability and socioeconomic resilience of the beef farming community including production efficiency. In addition, knowledge shared on consumer needs and expectations of meat quality for example will help us plan for the future.”

Estonia’s Minister for Rural Affairs, Mr. Urmas Kruuse, will open the meeting with a keynote speech on Estonia's perspective on sustainability and beef, followed by a series of sessions presented by BovINE’s Network Managers and Thematic Working Group leaders.

Outcomes from demonstrations and discussions held over the past year with and between farmers will highlight Good Practices already in use and Research Innovations identified across the project’s four thematic areas: Environmental Sustainability, Socioeconomic Resilience, Animal Health & Welfare, and Production Efficiency and Meat Quality.

To enable productive knowledge exchange, simultaneous live translation into eight European languages will be available to all participants via the online meeting platform. The languages available are English, Estonian, French, German, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian.

“Many solutions to the challenges facing the beef sector already exist,” says BovINE project coordinator, Prof Maeve Henchion of Teagasc. “Some are solutions farmers have come up with themselves and are already implementing on-farm, others have been developed by researchers and are ready to move from research into practice. BovINE has collected solutions to specific topics across all dimensions of sustainability from these sources in 2021. We look forward to discussing them with farmers, advisors, researchers and all representatives of the beef value chain at our forthcoming meeting.”

Richard Lynch BovINE Project Manager says “Developing a beef sector that meets the demands of both the consumer and the farmer will require the input of multiple actors from the Beef Knowledge and Innovation System. This upcoming meeting is a great opportunity to see how the BovINE project is bringing together multiple actors from across Europe to support the sector in becoming more sustainable” 

For more information, including the agenda for the online meeting on 2^nd December 2021, and to register, please see the Eventbrite page 

Ends/Notes follow

Notes to Editors:

1. 2021 Priority Topics for each of the four BovINE Themes

Further detail about the Priority Topics is available on the BovINE website www.bovine-eu.net and on the Bovine Knowledge Hub (BKH) – hub.bovine-eu.net/login

1. Further information regarding the project including requests for interviews with the Theme Leaders, Project Manager, or other project team members, and/or audio-visual content (photos/videos) please contact Rhonda Smith & Marie Saville in the UK at bovine@minervacomms.net +44 (0) 1264 326427 / +44(0)7887-714957
2. BovINE has a Network Manager (NM) based in each of the 9 member states (Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal & Spain) building networks across their beef farming communities. Contact information for each NM can be found on the BovINE website: http://www.bovine-eu.net/network-managers/ 
3. This Press Release and further information on the Priority Topics is available in other languages. Click on the flags on the Home Page of the BovINE website to access all translated materials of that country.
4. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 rural renaissance programme. Project No: 862590 under call H2020-RUR-2019-15. Further information is available at https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/862590
5. BovINE project partners