SEAMLESS (System for Environmental and Agricultural Modelling; Linking European Science and Society) is an integrated software system for ex-ante assessment of agricultural and environmental policies. The modeling tool aims to support improved European agricultural and environmental policies, and to strengthen sustainable development of the EU. SEAMLESS explores effects are the negotiations on the deregulation of world trade having on European farmers, farm income, the landscape and European consumers? What influence is the European Nitrates Directive having on the environment, land erosion or incomes in the agricultural sector? LEI is a partner in the project, which concluded in March.
The work was presented at a conference ‘Integrated Assessment of Agriculture and Sustainable Development; setting the agenda for science and policy (AgSAP)’, held in Egmond aan Zee, 10-12 March. Minister Verburg from the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality in the Netherlands gave a keynote address, entitled ‘Agriculture and sustainable development in the Netherlands'. In her presentation, she emphasised sustainable development is a very topical issue. We face a combination of crises: the food crisis, the energy crisis and the financial crisis. If we are to move beyond these crises, it is essential for the international community to take action. How must we act internationally and nationally, individually and together? And how can we do so with collective optimism and perseverance? The SEAMLESS project aims at involvement on all levels. To achieve the Millennium Development Goals we aim to produce enough food to feed 9 billion people by 2050. A free and healthy exchange of ideas is vital here. We must also seek the truth on issues that are politically sensitive.
SEAMLESS is one of the larger European research and development projects. 30 knowledge universities and research institutes from 13 countries worked together, under coordination of Wageningen UR.
Keynote presentations:
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