FiBL Europe with new president

The previous President of FiBL Europe, Urs Niggli, handed over the reins to Beate Huber at the beginning of July. The long-standing director of FiBL Switzerland is retiring.

The board members of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) Europe thanked the President for his commitment: on the European level, the institution had become an important player in organic farming within a short period of time.

FiBL Europe was founded in 2017 and is based in Brussels. It coordinates the joint activities of the five member organizations and facilitates cooperation with the institutions of the European Union and its partner organizations at European level.

"It was a bold step to become active in Brussels as a small research, education and consulting institute. But the European Commission and the public and private institutions and lobby groups active in Brussels have reacted positively. Because a scientifically serious and at the same time committed position on organic farming is very much in demand," Urs Niggli sums up.

In addition to her presidency, Beate Huber will continue to perform her duties at FiBL Switzerland as head of the Department for International Cooperation and as the representative for corporate culture.

FiBL Switzerland Director Knut Schmidtke emphasized that with the election of Beate Huber as President, FiBL Europe had succeeded in gaining a strong leader for this office who is very competent, widely recognized in organic farming and has excellent international networks.

Robert Hermanowski, Managing Director of FiBL Germany and Vice President of FiBL Europe, added: "Under her leadership, FiBL Europe will become even stronger as the central representative of the European member organizations’ interests than before." FiBL Europe coordinates the acquisition and administration of research and development projects.

Beate Huber said that with the "Farm to Fork" strategy and the goal of achieving 25 percent organic farming, an important milestone has been set for Europe. "It is important that we position ourselves as FiBL and contribute to the successful implementation of this strategy toget