Representatives from both NASA and ESA also sat at the virtual table of the two-day online conference that was organized by Design Terminal within the X-Europe program.
What is space data good for in agriculture? Why is urban farming so popular? What can the new generation bring to agriculture? Viewers could take part in inspiring presentations, constructive panel discussions and debates at the Future of Agritech conference that elaborated on the most pressing issues in agriculture.
Design Terminal organized the online event on November 16 and 17 2020 as part of the X-Europe program. The event attracted the interest of numerous agricultural professionals, entrepreneurs and investors. Viewers from all over Europe and even from overseas joined the program in front of the screens. A total of 23 speakers from 14 countries, renowned national and international experts presented their ideas on a variety of topics.
The first day of the conference was built around agricultural digitalisation and also focused on the new generation of agriculture. The second day addressed broader issues affecting the sector such as the effects of climate change, the water footprint of food and the consequences of COVID-19.
The importance of the conference and the speakers invited is well illustrated by the fact that on the first day, Design Terminal sat Inbal Becker-Reshef, Director of NASA Harvest and Joana Kamenova, Outreach and Business Analyst of European Space Agency (ESA) at a common virtual table. Alongside them, the audience could hear, among others, Attila Csányi, CEO of Bonafarm Group, Ferenc Balogh, Marketing Director of KITE Ltd., Borris Förster, associate partner of the German digital consulting company eccerate, Juan Francisco Delgado, Vice-President of the European Foundation of Innovation (INTEC), Vice-President of Smart Agrifood in Portugal.
Design Terminal’s main goal was to bring together the most exciting companies, startup founders, ecosystem players and agritech experts during the two days of the conference. Startups in the agritech cohort of the X-Europe program also took part in the event. Three CEOs: Kirill Zelenski (Intellectual Farms), Ru Wikmann (BeeSage) and Dror Tamir (Hargol Food Tech) spoke in one panel relevant for each of them.
Kirill Zelenski talked about the role of farming in urban life together with Gábor Rosta, president of the Urban Gardens Association in Hungary. The topic was about the fact that farming is thriving indoors and in the middle of cities due to technological advances and whether the city is our new countryside.
Ru Wikmann had a panel together with István Arnócz, general manager of Space Apps which helps apiaries with data processing and IoT systems and Gábor Szalkai, public affairs and sustainability manager of Bayer Hungaria. They elaborated on the subject about bees being indispensable parts of our ecosystem. Our agricultural system is unsustainable without them, yet their numbers are declining drastically. What can we and agricultural companies do for them?
Dror Tamir talked about the future of food’s protein and he also answered to viewers questions in the session. Protein has various sources beyond meat. This topic was about the question whether artificial meat or insects could change our protein consumption and how do we react to these changes.
After cohorts focusing on health tech and agritech, X-Europe will soon be addressing startups in AI and ML.
Those who missed the live program of the conference, can still watch all of the panels and conversations on Design Terminal’s Youtube channel.
For more information, please visit X-Europe on www.xeurope.eu, or follow it on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram.
