On 29 April 2026, VISION4FOOD held its first co-creation workshop in Bologna, Italy, at the premises of Confagricoltura Emilia-Romagna. The session brought together participants from farmers and producer groups, industry and SMEs, academia and research, and civil society. It was led by Confagricoltura and facilitated by Michele Contel, Leonardo Brachetti, Deborah Piovan and Ruggero Gualtieri.

The workshop built on a warm-up event held on 5 February 2026 at Fieragricola in Verona, where speakers discussed the role of New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) in innovation, sustainability and climate adaptation. Participants confirmed the importance of NGTs for the future of agriculture in Emilia-Romagna, particularly in responding to climate change, pests and extreme weather. The main challenge they raised was the need to overcome the association between NGTs and GMOs in public debate.

Participants saw NGTs as tools to protect local crops, biodiversity and regional agriculture. At the same time, they identified social acceptance as the main barrier, and stressed that communication must avoid the mistakes made in the past with GMOs. They also pointed to an “import paradox”: Europe may restrict the local use of these technologies while still importing products made with them elsewhere. Other challenges included regulatory uncertainty, the decline of strategic local crops, fewer crop-protection options, economic viability and the loss of local breeding capacity.

Five priority needs were selected: an evidence-based communication and education strategy, starting with schools and young people; the identification of priority regional crops and traits, such as pear, grapevine and maize; a structured dialogue with policymakers on regulation, field trials, coexistence with organic farming and labelling; stronger local research, breeding and technology-transfer capacity; and measurable economic and environmental evidence for specific use cases.

These needs were translated into four strategic priorities: communication, social acceptance, profitability and environmental impact. Participants agreed that communication should explain which concrete problem a technology helps to solve, and that farmers, young people and other trusted voices should be involved alongside scientists. Profitability was framed as a condition for keeping farms, local supply chains and jobs alive. Environmental benefits, such as fewer treatments and lower input use, should be communicated carefully and supported by data, since not every application automatically reduces environmental pressure. Participants also noted that public authorities, consumer organisations, schools, retailers and environmental and organic-sector representatives should be more strongly involved in the next steps.