On 23rd February 2021, around 40 interested Newbies joined an interactive web seminar on “Conversion to organic agriculture” using the conference tool Zoom.
After the preceding “Digital Agricultural Office” on 2nd February 2021, BDL (German Rural Youth Association) collaborated once more with the BLE (Federal Office for Agriculture and Food, Germany) to host an informational web seminar. This web seminar series is embedded within BDL’s Young Farmers Project which specifically targets issues relevant to Newbies and other young farmers.
In the “Conversion to organic agriculture” web seminar, the number of people was limited to enable better interaction between the participants. Throughout the event, the participants joined various breakout sessions to exchange information about their farms and answer a few lead questions. Most participants took the opportunity to get an idea on how to either establish a farming business or convert an existing one. The conversations in the breakout sessions were lively and many participants highlighted how much they valued the exchange.
For the event, two expert speakers gave invaluable insights into the topic: First, Sandra Höbel, who is a farming consultant for conversion to organic agriculture, gave a short presentation on the conversion process in general. She provided information on the standard procedure of converting one’s farm from conventional to organic and answered the most frequently asked questions she encounters through her work with the state agency of agriculture in Hesse (Landesbetrieb Landwirtschaft Hessen » Kompetenz für Landwirtschaft und Gartenbau).
The second speaker for the web seminar was Imkeen Daase who works for the federal program of organic farming and other types of sustainable agriculture in Germany (Bundesprogramm). Within that, she is responsible for the financial support service for consulting on converting farms to organic agriculture. Mrs. Daase gave more detailed insights into financing opportunities for farmers that are interested to start an organic business and explained how the German government promotes consulting for that.
The overall feedback on the web seminar was very positive. More events will follow since web seminars have proven to be a good tool to reach a wide audience on a diverse range of topics.
