ForumforAg Food Systems Podcast Summary

In this interview, Jörg-Andreas Krüger, President of NABU (the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union) and a strategic partner of the Forum, discusses the importance of cross-sector collaboration, the ongoing challenges of food security, climate change and biodiversity loss, and the forum panel he’s about to join on reforming the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Jörg-Andreas also touches on nature credits and the lessons Europe should learn from past mistakes with carbon markets.

Q: How important is it for NABU to be a strategic partner of the forum, and to be here today?

Jörg-Andreas said the partnership couldn’t be more important. He described a period of significant change, threats and underlying pressures, making it essential for different actors to come together to develop solutions rather than working in silos across separate meetings and conferences, since past approaches are no longer fit for the future.

Q: Feeding the world depends on agriculture, but agriculture is also a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss. Those tensions aren’t going away, are they?

Jörg-Andreas agreed they will remain ongoing challenges. He pointed to the early effects of the war in Iran and the resulting sharp price rises as evidence of how food security is becoming increasingly urgent, making it harder to simultaneously secure food supply, cut greenhouse gas emissions and preserve biodiversity in a way that ensures the world can still be fed in 50 years.

Q: So it’s not business as usual?

Jörg-Andreas agreed, stressing the importance of bringing together willing actors, particularly around the future of the Common Agricultural Policy given increasingly tight budgets, and specifically what can be achieved through discussions in Brussels with the Parliament and Commission.

Q: You’re on a panel today about the CAP, land use, and the governance needed to deliver it. CAP reform is famously slow, yet action is needed now. What’s your message?

Jörg-Andreas identified risk minimisation and resilience as central themes, alongside the underlying pressures of climate change and biodiversity loss, which must be reduced if Europe and the world are to continue being fed. He said this requires a CAP governance structure capable of actually delivering on these goals. Despite decades of reforms, studies and field experience, he said the sector still struggles to translate this into effective policy, and expressed disappointment with the European Commission’s current proposal, calling for people to be invited into the fight for a better CAP.

Q: It’s a complicated, technical system — potentially complicated into failure?

Jörg-Andreas agreed, saying this is exactly why it’s essential to bring together the Commission, member states, Parliament, stakeholders, scientists and farmers to find genuinely helpful solutions, rather than simply shifting budget allocations from one area to another.

Q: Is the progress discussed at the forum each year being eroded by volatility and instability, or is it galvanising action?

Jörg-Andreas said it sometimes feels that way, acknowledging that many people in society have more immediate concerns than biodiversity right now. However, he pointed to NABU’s continued growth in membership and donations as a hopeful sign, despite some politicians telling him that climate change is “a topic from yesterday” — evidence, he said, that public appetite for this work remains even if people are currently focused on other pressing problems.

Q: Turning to nature credits — you’ve said Europe shouldn’t repeat the mistakes made with carbon markets and ecosystem service payments. Any progress there?

Jörg-Andreas said he was encouraged by the number of start-ups, scientists and companies working with the EU to develop a legal framework for nature credits, and expressed optimism that Europe can build a system that avoids repeating the mistakes seen with climate certificates in the Global South.

Q: CAP is meant to offer a predictable, stable framework, but the merger into a single fund is unpopular. Will that be a hot topic on the panel later?

Jörg-Andreas confirmed it would be central to the discussion, noting that billions of euros for European farmers are at stake.

Q: What will be your main call to action for the forum?

Jörg-Andreas said his key message is that now is the time to change the current proposals, with a shift toward minimum budgets for environmental and climate action rather than continuing to prioritise direct payments.