Organised in the framework of the Soils for Europe SOLO project, PAN Europe and the Institute of Advanced Studies Kőszeg will hold a 1-hour webinar focused on reducing and preventing soil pollution, a key objective of the Soil Mission.
Preventing soil pollution is one of the top priorities of the Soil Mission, especially as awareness of its widespread harmful impacts continues to grow. Soil pollution creates major costs for society, affecting both the environment and human health. Therefore, there is a need to recognise and account for the high societal costs of pollution in our soil, food systems, and food chains. It is also important to implement available measures to stop soil and food-system pollution and to ensure that consumers receive transparent information about toxic chemicals.
The webinar aims to encourage discussion on these important issues through three presentations:
| Speaker | Session |
| Robin Simpson, formerly an independent adviser to the UN on consumer policy | The consumer dimension (of the transition to sustainable agriculture and food production). |
| Felix Cornehl, Hazardous Chemicals lead, Systemiq | Tackling toxic chemicals in the food system. |
| Nicolas Munier-Jolain, INRAE, Research unit Agroecology, Dijon, France | PESTI-score, a prototype label designed to engage consumers and encourage farmers to drastically reduce their use of pesticides. |
Speakers' background:
Prior to being an adviser and policy analyst for UNCTAD (2016-23), Robin Simpson was a 10-year member of the OECD consumer policy committee representing Consumers International (CI), the global federation of consumer associations. While head of policy at the UK’s National Consumer Council (NCC), he worked on the CAP and on the accession of 8 new member states in Central & Eastern Europe to the EU in 2004, and worked at CI and NCC on food safety and international trade.
Nicolas Munier-Jolain is a research engineer at INRAE. He is engaged in participatory research with farmers transitioning towards agriculture practices with reduced reliance on pesticides, especially with farmers coordinated within the DEPHY network of demo farms in France, and within the IPMWORKS network at the European level, funded by the H2020 programme of the European Commission from 2020 to 2025.
Felix Cornehl has been leading Systemiq’s work on hazardous chemicals, including as lead author of the Invisible Ingredients report. He has also been leading the firm’s work on the UN plastic treaty negotiations, in which human health and chemicals feature prominently. Before joining Systemiq, Felix was a Senior Advisor in the UK Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit and worked at LSE Health.
After the presentations, participants will be invited to share their thoughts and reflect on the topics raised.
Join us on 29 June between 11 AM and 12 PM CEST.
If you would like to attend, please secure your spot via this registration form HERE.
The ideas and insights gathered during the discussion will be used to help build the research and innovation roadmap for the SOLO project.
