Global Agro-industry Working Together to Drive the World Towards Sustainable Food and Water Production

Amsterdam (ots/PRNewswire) -

Committee's far reaching conclusions will be used to direct
industry and international bodies on achieving a sustainable global
supply chain

"As we consider the rapidly expanding world population and the
ever increasing demand for an abundant, healthy, and affordable food
supply; it will be essential for industry, government, and other
stakeholders to find new innovative ways of working together to yield
sustainable agricultural solutions for the future. CropWorld Global
is a much needed catalyst for making this collaboration a reality."
Dr. Maximilian Safarpour - Director, Global Regulatory & Government
Affairs, BASF Corporation

- CropWorld Global Steering & Advisory Committee - including FERA, Bayer
CropScience, Lindsay Irrigation, BASF and Coca-Cola - to collectively exchange
initiatives towards meeting sustainable challenges in local and global food security
- Greater private sector research into biopesticides and synthetic chemistries
that protect crops identified as one key theme for future development

CropWorld Global 2013 [http://www.cropworld-global.com ], the
annual agricultural industry event run by UBM Live, has announced the
formation of its Steering & Advisory Committee which will seek to
meet the challenges of working towards a sustainable agricultural
production cycle - with initiatives across supply chain, crop
protection, water and irrigation and other concerns that are seen as
crucial to reducing waste and increasing productivity.

Members of the high level panel will be set the ambitious goals of
identifying new ways to sustainably feed the world's growing
population. Featuring a mixture of prominent government and agency
representatives, the Committee includes European MP Robert Sturdy;
the British Crop Protection Council's Dr. Colin Roscoe and Dr. Julian
Smith, the Food and Environment Research Agency's (FERA) sector
leader in international development and food and supply chain.

The panel's raison d'etre will see it harness the combined powers
of industry and international agencies for a collaborative approach
to the world's pressing agricultural supply chain issues. "The forum
it provides for the exchange of ideas greatly contributes to all of
our efforts in finding solutions to the challenges facing global
agriculture and food production," Committee member Pam Marrone
(Founder and CEO of Marrone Bio Innovations)

Last month, CropWorld Global announced the launch of its 'planting
the seeds of innovation' campaign designed to champion decreased
wastage in the supply chain and increased production yields. In
support of this, the internationally recognised Centre for
Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI) has sent their
expert to join the steering committee - Dr. Philippa David, Food
supply chain and Senior Business Development Consultant.

"With the drivers of climate adaptation, increasing population and
personal food choice, we increasingly need to value food as a
one-world resource. For instance, the UK, although a developed
country, is increasingly dependent on overseas food sources, notably
of developing nations and we must address how we meet this challenge,
notwithstanding the imperative to address food insecurity and poverty
within developing nations," commented committee member Dr. Julian
Smith of FERA.

The Committee is represented by some of the world's biggest
agricultural companies who will lend their weight to increasing
innovation across the globe. Together with the European MP, FERA,
Marrone Bio Innovations and the BCPC, other members include:

- Dr David Nicolson, Head of Global R&D and Member of the Executive
Committee, Bayer CropScience
- Dr Maximilian Safarpour, Director Global Regulatory and Government Affairs,
BASF
- David McPherson, Head of Chemistry and Field Trials, Charles River (CRO)
- Graham Redman, Partner, The Anderson Centre
- Sam Haider, VP of international Sales, Lindsay Irrigation
- Dr Ernesto Brovelli, Senior Manager, Sustainable Agriculture Environment and
Water Resources, Coca-Cola

Dr. Smith added "FERA's attendance on the CropWorld Global
steering committee is core to our aspiration to contribute to our
fullest role in these UK and global challenges through positioning
FERA's research and knowhow at the centre of the debate, together
with industry and government. For example, in the development of a
next generation of technologies, alongside, and in support of,
policies that provide clear incentives to food chain stakeholders to
work collectively towards evermore sustainable practices. To this
end, the steering committee, through the participation of the major
global agro-industry partners, provides a unique space to identify
new ways of thinking and working towards collective and concerted
change.To pull out just one thread of the debate, would be to
identify the need to bring investment from the private sector back
into research in the areas of biotechnology. This not only relates to
the use of genetic engineering, but also with respect to
bio-pesticides and synthetic chemistries that may serve as a next
generation of crop protectants - crucial to increasing prospective
yields."

Pam Marrone echoed his thoughts, commenting "serving on the
CropWorld Global committee is tremendously valuable to Marrone Bio
Innovations. It provides a unique opportunity to share and discuss
research and product development advances with the truly
forward-thinking companies and leaders in our industry."

CropWorld Global's Steering & Advisory Committee is now finalising
the event's key themes and has identified 'decreasing the yield gap',
'increasing supply', 'developing sustainable crops', 'reducing water
and waste issues', and implementing a 'responsible supply chain' as
the areas it wishes to address.

Terri D'Elia, Exhibition Director at CropWorld Global, added: "We
are delighted that the world's biggest thought leaders in
agricultural and water have joined the CropWorld Steering & Advisory
Committee. We now have a tremendous opportunity to help work towards
providing safe, sustainable and adequate amounts of food globally.
Over the next 10-years, food is forecast to become 30% more
expensive, with the worldwide demand requiring production to rise 50%
by 2030 - it is one of the greatest challenges to international food
producers, scientists and governments today and I strongly believe we
can help work towards meeting these increasing international
pressures."

About CropWorld Global 2013:

The exhibition-led event is taking place in the Netherlands (the
world's second largest agricultural exporter) between the 29th and
30th of October at the Amsterdam RAI. Over two days, four
vertical-specific, modular conferences will take place alongside the
exhibition, examining the regulatory and industry implications across
'water and irrigation', 'crop science', 'supply chain', and 'R&D' -
later in the year full conference topics and plenary sessions will be
announced.

For further information on how to help spread industry innovation,
details on speaking at the event, exhibiting, attending or
sponsorship packages, please contact CropWorld Global 2013: Terri
D'Elia, Exhibition Director, at enquiries@cropworld.com,
+44(0)207-560-4364 or visit http://www.cropworld-global.com

- Over 2000 global industry professionals, 90 exhibitors and 115 paid
delegates
- Exhibitors from the world's leading companies in their respective areas: Crop
Production and Protection; Water and Irrigation; Supply Chain; R&D - Innovation;
Seeds; Soil Management; Packaging and Storage; Education & Training, Regulatory &
Academia; Crop Waste management & Storage; Precision Agriculture and Machinery
- 4 exhibitor zones: Crop science, Water (irrigation, drainage and management),
Supply Chain, and General (companies that supply products and services to the sector)

Notes to editors

CropWorld Global 2013 is being organised by UBM Live in
association with the British Crop Production Council (BCPC). UBM uses
its experience in overseas markets to complement and build on the
annual CropWorld conferences and exhibitions by running regional
events in the key crop producing geographic regions of the world.

About UBM Live

UBM Live is a division of UBM Plc. a leading provider of business
information services to the maritime, travel, fashion, technology,
healthcare, media, and property industries. UBM offers services in
trade shows, conferences, online, news distribution, and publishing
to customers across the globe. Its brands are represented in more
than 30 countries and are organised into specialist teams that serve
their business communities helping them excel in their market by
working effectively and efficiently. For more information, go to
http://www.ubmlive.com

About BCPC

British Crop Production Council (BCPC) promotes the use of science
and technology in the understanding and application of effective and
sustainable crop production.

Further details are available at http://www.bcpc.org

Further details are available from Terri D'Elia, Exhibition
Director, UBM Live, call +44(0)20-7560-4364, email
terri.delia@ubm.com or visit http://www.cropworld-global.com

For media enquiries, please contact:
Alex Heeley or Tristan Jervis
De Facto Communications
T: +44(0)207-203-6745
E: a.heeley@defacto.com t.jervis@defacto.com

ots Originaltext: UBM Live
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