International Green Week Berlin
The International Green Week Berlin , usually called Green Week for short , is a trade fair in Berlin at which agricultural products (in the broadest sense) are presented by manufacturers and marketers from the global agricultural industry and which is open not only to trade visitors but also to the general public. It is the most important international trade fair for the food industry , agriculture and horticulture and traditionally takes place at the beginning of the year in the exhibition halls under the radio tower . In 2020 it had almost 400,000 visitors, 90,000 of whom were trade visitors.
The organizer of the Green Week is Messe Berlin , the ideal sponsors are the German Farmers' Association (DBV) and the Federal Association of the German Food Industry (BVE).
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Green Week in January 2021 only took place as a digitally broadcast event without an on-site audience and only on two days (January 20 and 21).
story
Beginnings
The first "Green Week" (not yet "international" at the time) took place from February 20 to 28, 1926, after an employee at the Berlin Tourist Office had the idea of organizing the traditional winter conference of the German Agricultural Society in Berlin with an agricultural exhibition to combine and thus to bring the street sales of agricultural articles to the participants of the conference in an orderly form. In the first year 50,000 visitors were counted on an exhibition area of 7,000 m². The fair owes its name to the forest and agricultural visitors who were often dressed in green loden coats at the time .
time of the nationalsocialism
From 1933, the Green Week was integrated into the National Socialist ideology. A comprehensive review of the history of Green Week at this time is still pending. Green Week took place every year until 1939, with the exception of 1938 because of the rampant foot-and-mouth disease at the time .
New start in 1948
After a break due to the war , the Green Week was held again from 1948. After it had to be canceled in 1950 due to major construction work, it took place again on an annual basis from 1951. The participation of foreign exhibitors increased continuously from this point in time, in 1963 they already made up two thirds of all participants in the exhibition. Since the 1990s, the Green Week has seen a particular upswing due to German reunification and the opening of the Eastern Bloc . Special shows on topics such as "Cheese from Germany" and a professional supporting program with z. B. in 2005 over 250 lectures, seminars and symposia round off the fair.
21st century
On the occasion of Green Week, the “Global Forum for Food and Agriculture” has been taking place annually in Berlin since 2008 and, since 2009, an international agriculture ministers' summit in the Foreign Office as its political climax .
The 80th International Green Week took place from January 16-25, 2015. In the sense of the expert opinion of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) from 2011, " Social Contract for a Great Transformation " with its postulate of turning away from fossil fuels as the basis of the economy , the term bioeconomy has become a new model for the global Agriculture and Food Production determines the annual international meeting of agriculture ministers at this event. The fair was visited by 415,000 visitors, 5,000 more than in the previous year.
From January 15 to 24, 2016, 1660 exhibitors from 65 countries presented themselves. The Russian Federation , represented at the fair since 1993 and one of the largest exhibitors since 2006, did not take part because the Minister of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev had not received an entry permit due to the EU sanctions in the Crimean conflict . With Morocco was the first time a non-European country Host country. The number of trade fair and congress visitors fell to almost 400,000, of which a good 100,000 were trade visitors.
In 2018, Russia took part again despite the EU's ongoing sanctions , albeit in a restricted form (the Russian Agriculture Minister came back to the Agriculture Ministers' Meeting in 2017 and spoke at the World Food Conference). After a long absence, Sweden , Japan and Kazakhstan were there again. The emirate of Qatar was represented at the fair for the first time . The Hippologica took place for the first time as part of Green Week .
On August 20, 2020, Messe Berlin announced that, due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic , the Green Week of the following year would not take place as a public or consumer fair, but only as a specialist event without an exhibition. On November 16, 2020, it was announced that the Green Week would be held as a purely digitally broadcast event without an audience. This took place on January 20 and 21, 2021 under the title IGW Digital 2021 .
Side exhibitions and conferences
GFFA
The Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) , an international conference on agricultural and food policy issues, has been taking place in Berlin since 2008, parallel to the International Green Week. The conference is organized by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) in cooperation with the Senate of Berlin , Messe Berlin and the GFFA Berlin e. V. At the GFFA, participants from politics, business, science and civil society discuss a key topic, mostly from the field of food security . On the last day of the conference, the highlight of the GFFA will be the Berlin Agriculture Ministers' Conference with around 70 Agriculture Ministers and representatives of international organizations (such as FAO , OECD , WTO and World Bank ).
Hippologica
Since 2018, the Hippologica , a four-day indoor equestrian tournament with an attached horse fair, has been taking place as part of Green Week . There are competitions in jumping , dressage and vaulting . In addition, a pair of obstacle driving will be held.
Official partner countries
Since 2005 there has been an official partner country at Green Week every year:
2005 Czech Republic
2006 Russia
2007 Germany
2008 Switzerland
2009 Netherlands
2010 Hungary
2011 Poland
2012 Romania
2013 Netherlands
2014 Estonia
2015 Latvia
2016 Morocco
2017 Hungary
2018 Bulgaria
2019 Finland
2020 Croatia
Accompanying protests
For a number of years now, Green Week has been marked by protests under the motto We're fed up! accompanied. The movement sees itself as a global movement for climate justice and consistent climate protection . At the beginning of 2013, 25,000 people protested against factory farming , the excessive use of antibiotics in fattening animals and called for an agricultural turnaround . The chairman of the Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation , Hubert Weiger, said at the final rally in 2013: “The beautiful appearance of the exhibition stands conceals millions of animal suffering.” Ina Müller-Arnke, farm animal expert from Vier Pfoten sees “absolutely no need to exhibit animals at trade fairs ... the animals are torn out of their familiar surroundings and separated from the familiar herd ”. Tens of thousands protested again in 2015 (according to the police, 25,000, according to which the organizers 50,000).
literature
- Sven Schultze: “Land in sight”? Agricultural exposures in the German system conflict . be.bra verlag, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-95410-103-0 .
Web links
- Gruenewoche.de - Official website of Messe Berlin
- International Green Week Berlin in the AUMA seat database
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b International Green Week 2021 will take place exclusively digitally. Press release from Messe Berlin , November 16, 2020
- ↑ Where the Green Week got its name from . In: Berliner Morgenpost , January 15, 2010.
- ↑ Green Week anniversary: clean up your Nazi past! In: berliner-kurier.de , January 20, 2016.
- ↑ Press release: History of the Green Week, ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on January 14, 2015.
- ↑ Benjamin Dierks, Difficult leap from laboratory to industry . At: Deutschlandfunk in the background broadcast , January 15, 2015.
- ↑ Review of the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) 2015 , gffa-berlin.de gffa-berlin.de, search results “Bioökonomie” ( memento of the original from September 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Green Week in Berlin without Russia: One of the largest exhibitors stays quietly away from the fair. In: Der Tagesspiegel , January 9, 2016.
- ↑ Green Week - Russian minister is not allowed to enter. ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. At: Deutschlandfunk, January 15, 2016.
- ^ Final report Green Week 2016
- ↑ International Green Week 2021 takes place as an industry get-together . Press release from Messe Berlin , August 20, 2020
- ↑ GFFA: What is the GFFA .
- ^ Hippologica
- ↑ History of the Green Week: From a local commodity exchange to a world fair , ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
- ↑ Website of the International Green Week Berlin, ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on January 15, 2018.
- ↑ Environmentalists call for a turnaround in agriculture. In: the daily newspaper , January 22, 2012.
- ↑ Data and facts about animals as food, Heinrich Böll Foundation, p. 47 ( Memento from November 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 5.1 MB).
- ↑ www.wir-haben-es-satt.de
- ↑ 25,000 demonstrators are calling for an agricultural turnaround. In: Die Welt , January 19, 2013.
- ↑ That's why animal rights activists are critical of Green Week , from January 27, 2020 in Tagesspiegel.de.
- ^ Hanna Gersmann and dpa : Tens of thousands demonstrate against agricultural factories . In: Badische Zeitung , January 19, 2015.
