They dissected a vital question: how is Hungary’s food supply developing?
After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the Jászság Manager’s Club Association once again provided a forum for the economic actors of Jászság and the leaders of the settlements to discuss current professional issues, transfer information and think together.
– The events of the past period, including the pandemic, the ever-increasing climate change and the war, forced us to save our everyday lifestyle and consumption habits. One of the most important questions of the near future will be how to ensure food supply for the population of the planet, including the inhabitants of Hungary, said Dr. István Rédei, president of the Jászsági Managers Club Association. The local effects of global processes encouraged the organizers to put food in the focus of the conference. The main patron of the event is dr. Minister of Agriculture István Nagy undertook it.
– Preservation of values and traditions in the XXI. Adapting to the challenges of the 20th century is no small task – stressed Dr. Sewing Bernadette. The general director of education and research of the Jászberényi Campus of the Eszterházy Károly Catholic University called the cooperation of entrepreneurs, municipalities and educational institutions of the region important in this process.
In the line of greetings, dr. The county mayor Attila Berkó emphasized that agriculture and the food industry are facing a significant transformation, in which higher education, its young people and the rise of new, innovative technologies will play a decisive role.
Dr. Zsolt Feldman, the State Secretary responsible for agriculture and rural development of the Ministry of Agriculture, in the opening lecture of the conference, talks about, among other things, the complex situation facing the sector due to the energy crisis caused by climate change, the Russian-Ukrainian war, and the European Union’s policy of sanctions.
– At the beginning of August, eighty percent of Hungarian agricultural areas suffered from severe or extremely critical drought. This created a situation, which is why it is no coincidence that the Drought Emergency Task Force was set up and the government put it in an extraordinary position, he reminded the state secretary.
As part of this, for example, a loan moratorium and interest-subsidized loans help farmers affected by the drought. As he put it: our energy supply is assured, but it depends on the European economic environment. He also spoke about the application for energy subsidies for small and medium-sized enterprises in the manufacturing industry, and that it is crucial that as many efficiency-enhancing modernizations as possible be implemented with the support of the Renewable countryside, renewable agriculture program.
In addition to irrigation development investments, technological developments for water retention and soil moisture conservation are also important. The theme of the conference was structured so that in the first block following the opening presentation, the effects of agricultural production and climate change were in focus. In her presentation, Dóra Csernus, the leading climate and environmental policy expert of the Equilibrium Institute, detailed the set of problems associated with climate change, the progress towards climate neutrality goals, and the joint management of the issue of climate change and air pollution.
The smart plate was also served
In the second block of the received professional forum, the main role of production and processing was played, while the third part was about consumption, primarily about the effect of food on the human body. The lectures of the invited university lecturers and researchers will be joined by representatives of businesses and organizations in Jászág, who will share their own experiences about how they are trying to stay afloat and renew themselves in this challenging period.
During the day, in the shadow of the crises, the situation of the baking and milling industries, and the processing of horticultural products were analyzed, among other things, and the secret of data-based indoor plant cultivation was also revealed. it was about consumption trends, the important role of nutrients in health preservation, but the Hungarian nutritional recommendation prepared by the National Association of Hungarian Dietitians, the smart plate, was also discussed.