ATF Seminar: new challenges for innovating toward sustainable livestock

On November 5, the 4th Animal Task Force Seminar took place in Brussels. The Animal Task Force’s Seminar ‘Putting the i in livestock- innovating for a competitive and sustainable livestock sector’ brought together researchers, industry representatives, policy-makers and societal organisation to discuss the new challenges to innovate for a sustainable livestock sector. 

The Seminar focused on key challenges for innovation and ways to turn the excellent research being done in Europe into practice. Inspiring examples from innovative businesses were central at the Seminar. Representatives from Ynsect, UNIFORM-Agri, Elanco and Vencomatic Group presented examples of enabling technologies for societal change from their companies. Together with key-note speakers from the research arena and policy-makers, the discussion focussed on how we can further enhance innovation that supports a sustainable development of a competitive animal sector in Europe.

The regulatory environment and subsidies can be hurdles to stimulate investments in innovations. Also the ‘orgware’ and ‘software’ aspects of innovation should be taken into account. Strong communicators are needed to translate scientific findings to practical solutions, sound training programmes and on-farm demonstrations.