Canada | Events

Bayer CropScience sponsors global Youth Ag-Summit - discussing the future of agriculture

120 youth delegates experienced an intense debate on how to increase consumer awareness of agriculture, reduce food waste, counter the effects of climate change and cope with a growing human footprint.

9/18/2013

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120 youth delegates from 20 countries discussed how to feed the world’s growing population at a week-long global Youth Ag-Summit held in Calgary, Canada. The summit, the first event of its kind, was organized by the Canadian Youth Organisation 4-H and sponsored by Bayer CropScience. The participants experienced an intense debate on how to increase consumer awareness of agriculture, reduce food waste, counter the effects of climate change and cope with a growing human footprint.

“Young people committed to agriculture are our future. They deserve our recognition and support,” said Liam Condon, CEO of Bayer CropScience. “With our contribution, we want to help the next generation get a good start in an industry that is faced with huge challenges caused by a continuously growing world population.”

Christine Warkentin, one of the two German delegates, was impressed by the summit. “My expectations were far exceeded. I was able to develop new solutions, and the event changed my perspective. Thanks to the international mix of participants, I gained an insight into different points of view and ideas, and we forged a network of support that will carry on long after the summit has ended.” 

The summit organizers received more than 500 applications from young people aged between 18 and 25 from all over the world who wanted to take part in the event. Each applicant submitted a written or video essay that framed the issues they see in their community and around the world, proposed viable solutions and addressed how they would utilize the summit to advance change. 

The summit saw the delegates participate in a full schedule of presentations, debates, discussions, group work, tours and networking. On the final night, after almost a week of working together, eight delegate groups presented their visions for how we will feed more people. 

These young people believe that one of the answers lies in supporting women in agriculture. Women are the world’s primary food producers, responsible for producing 60 to 80 percent of all food in developing countries and almost half of the food we consume worldwide. Despite helping to produce our food, women and children are often more severely affected by hunger than men. In fact, 60 percent of the world’s hungry are women and every five second a child dies from a hunger-related disease. 

For Bayer CropScience, the summit is another important element of its commitment to engage with young people. Bayer has made its vision of modern education a reality at its headquarters in Monheim with the “BayLab Plants”. In three laboratories with some 300 square meters of floor space, young people in eighth grade or above can now perform experiments for themselves. Three fully equipped laboratories, a spacious conference room, a small break room and an office are ready and waiting for up to 30 students and three supervisors on each experimentation day.