Earlier in October last year, the Community of Practice (CoP) in Germany held a fruitful meeting in Flensburg, where attendees discussed common concerns and identified resources to be deployed in order to pull together in the same direction.
The aim of this CoP is to support, improve and scale soil health business models developed in the German Testing Ground (TG). This business model creates a regional circular system including dairy manure, biogas and composting.
A total of 24 participants are involved in the German CoP, coming from agriculture, politics, finance, NGOs, science associations, business developments and the biogas industry. This CoP has grown considerably in recent months, and there is a high level of motivation and willingness to contribute to the diverse resources of the group. In addition to updating each other on the latest developments within the project and the Testing Ground, attendees agreed that challenges such as climate change and carbon loss, as well as the social image of agriculture, are of paramount importance when it comes to maintaining soil health. However, participants recognised the valorisation of measures related to soil health as one of the most urgent challenges to tackle. The group proposed to work towards concrete actions in this direction within the next meeting, which will take place in the upcoming weeks.