Green week 2025: Focus on agriculture despite the risk of disease!

Green week 2025: Focus on agriculture despite the risk of disease!

The International Green Week in Berlin, the largest trade fair for nutrition and agriculture worldwide, started on January 20, 2025 and lasts until January 26th. The event offers farmers the opportunity to bring the life and work on the farm closer to visitors. Among the participants are Eva Waldeyer from Brakel, Marina Lakemeyer from Nieheim, Sascha Winkelhahn from Höxter and Jan Bergmann from Nieheim, who present the Westphalian agriculture. Their goal is to raise awareness of domestic agriculture and to promote discussions on everyday issues such as animal welfare, agriculture and sustainability, while the challenges, especially bureaucracy, are also discussed. Westfalen Blatt reports that the fair will take place this year for the 89th time.

Although the green week is affected by the outbreak of mouth and claw disease in Brandenburg, which led to a reduction in animals at the fair, the event remains a central point of contact for the agricultural industry. The participant statistics show that around 1,400 exhibitors and more than 300,000 guests are expected. The topics of the fair are the focus of resource protection, sustainability and the discussion about the future of animal husbandry.

protests and demands during the Green Week

parallel to the fair, protests took place on January 18, 2025 under the motto "We are fed up". Thousands of demonstrators, the number of which was estimated by the police to around 3,500 and the organizers to around 9,000, demanded fairer producer prices and stronger animal and environmental protection. This mobilization was organized by around 60 agricultural, environmental and development organizations. ZDF emphasizes that the alliance also expects support for a farmer-ecological agriculture.

Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir also took part in the fair and explained that hunger suffocation and the climate crisis tightened the situation in agriculture. In addition, the agricultural ministers from around 70 countries confirmed their commitment to sustainable bioeconomy and the financing of a FAO project on the global bioeconomy partnership. It was emphasized that ecological aspects also have to be integrated into social existential security, as required by Elke Ronneberger from Diakonie Germany. The climate activist Carla Reemtsma from "Fridays for Future" also advocated climate protection in agriculture and climate neutrality by 2035.

Interactive offers and training of farmers

At the fair, visitors can expect numerous interactive offers such as Virtual Reality Stalls and a farm Buzzer quiz. The young farmers from Westphalia-Lippe, who have prepared themselves for the fair, received intensive training before, including rhetorical and media training. This should help you to convey complex topics understandably. The organizers, Messe Berlin GmbH and ideal sponsors such as the German Farmers' Association (DBV) and the Federal Association of the German Nutritional Industry (BVE), want to make local agriculture more tangible.