Mr. Lars Sponheim
Minister of agriculture, Norway

Minneapolis, June 30, 2003

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen;

First, I would like to thank the organisers for convening and hosting this collaborative networking seminar: the University of Minnesota, the Norwegian Embassy in Washington D.C. and the Norwegian Consulate General here in Minneapolis. A special thanks to Norway's Ambassador to the U.S. Knut Vollebæk for spear-heading the Norwegian Government's strategy to strengthen the research co-operation between Norway and the U.S.

Minnesota and other states in the Mid-West have close connections to Norway. Those who left Norway in the past to seek new opportunities in Minnesota left behind one of the poorest countries in Europe with few opportunities for work and income. The agricultural sector made technological progress and the need for labour decreased. Few other opportunities existed for those not fortunate with their own farm or other support for their living. Many Norwegians and Minnesotans say that it was among the best people that left Norway to seek new opportunities over here. Having experienced the development in the Mid-West and the progress you have made in a wide range of business sectors and the development of your society, I tend to agree. I hope we can benefit from this by increasing our cooperation with you on topics of mutual interest.

Please allow me to present to you a brief overview of the agricultural sector in Norway:

Norway is the northernmost country in Europe. The main productions are dairy and meat products, eggs, cereals and temperate fruits and vegetables. About three quarters of farm income is derived from livestock production and one quarter from crop production. The production is almost entirely destined for the national market and plays an important role in ensuring national food security, sustaining the viability of rural areas and safeguarding environmental qualities. The arctic and sub-arctic conditions in Norway are characterised by harsh climate, low temperatures and a short growing season.

Arable land is scattered all over the country and represents only 3 per cent of the total land area in Norway. The average farm size is around 16 ha arable land, while the average field size is only 1.5 ha. Agriculture in Norway is much more than food production: To meet society’s needs, we expect the sector also to produce public goods and contribute to viable rural communities, provide a broad range of environmental and cultural benefits, and contribute to long term food security. Thus, agriculture and forests are the soul of my country.

Globally, agriculture is together with forestry, the largest land user and it has a profound impact on the environment, both in positive and negative ways. Agriculture contributes to environmental goods such as biological diversity, cultural landscapes and cultural heritage. On the negative side, agricultural activity commonly causes water and air pollution, soil erosion, salinisation, excessive water withdrawal and loss of biological diversity. In Norway environmental issues have been on the agenda for several decades.

The natural and geographic conditions are a major challenge for the agricultural sector in Norway. The production costs are considerable higher than in USA. That implies that Norwegian agriculture, within the frame of WTO, needs protection in the future. In addition, the agricultural sector needs to focus at opportunities for markets for their products and income from new products and services. We will continue to seek for new opportunities based on land use that secures environmental conditions.

CO ₂-neutral hydroelectric power provides most of the stationary energy supply in Norway. This will also be the situation in the future. In addition, bio-energy will be important to meet the increased demand for energy for heating. I would emphasise the need to develop new technologies in order to make the production of bio-energy more cost effective. This is particularly important in order to increase the production and use of bio-fuel in the transport sector.

Norway is committed to the Kyoto-protocol and its obligations. I expect that our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will influence the relative cost of different sources of energy and contribute to make bioenergy more competitive in the future.

Bioenergy also provide promising opportunities as a marketable product from forestry and agriculture. Current consumption of biomass for energy purposes equals 16 Twh/ year in Norway. Recent estimates indicate that it is possible to more than double the supply of biomass for energy purposes within the technical and ecological conditions required. This is important for the sectors involved, for rural development and as a contribution to diversify the energy supply and to assist us in our effort to increase the supply of energy from renewable sources.

Further, it will be quite central to strengthen “non food use” from agriculture in a broader sense. In this field we have to use biotechnology in a more comprehensive way. Consumer confidence, however, is a key factor in this regard. It is well known from the public debate that consumers in Europe, Norway are no exception, voice strong scepticism towards parts of this technology applied in food production.

Both Norway and Minnesota face similar challenges in combining environmental and economical considerations. We must to a considerable extent mobilize research and development to reduce production costs and to secure and improve our performance in the environmental field.

About 99 percent of the world’s research and technology development takes place outside Norway. It is obvious that we need to cooperate internationally. We have a large scale of cooperation in Europe within the EU’s research programmes. It is, however, necessary to strengthen our connections with American scientists, including education of new scientists and student exchange programs.

Strengthening our basic research is also necessary. We would like to be in front professionally in selected fields and we want to give priority to groups on several basic research areas. We want to focus on developing centres of excellences. The centres will be devoted to long-term, basic research.

Aquaculture Protein Centre (APC) is one of Norway's eleven Centres of Excellence. APC consists of scientists from the several institutes and the Agricultural University of Norway (NLH) is the host institute.

Fish protein as an ingredient in fish feed is now more or less fully exploited. Alternative sources must be found. Such alternatives can be plant-derived protein, protein from microorganisms or from other marine organisms further down the food chain. In order to achieve this, new basic knowledge is needed. APC wishes to contribute to the generation of this knowledge.

Minnesota and Norway have a number of research areas that could be of mutual interest. Please allow me to provide you with some additional examples:

In order to ensure food safety for the public we do need extensive expertise on these issues. Research is supported in several areas related to this as for instance plant- and animal breeding, microbial food science. Our scientific communities participate in Nordic and EU-research - programmes. Research for food safety is a global concern and international scientific collaboration is a necessity.

The Joint U.S – Norwegian Livestock Security Program will bring together researchers in both countries in order to strengthen the homeland security. Norwegian Dairy Cattle have high genetic resistance to diseases, as well as high milk production and very efficient reproduction. We have a good accumulation of bovine genetic data. This is another example of mutual interest in research.

New technologies are developed and give better tools for analysing biological materials, optimising the production and developing new products. We shall, however, be aware of the negative environmental effects and ethic considerations. Often we do not know the consequences from actions taken to day. We believe the precautionary principle should be taken into account and the society must have confidence in technology development.

It is my sincere hope that this seminar will make a basis for further development and organized cooperation between research communities in Norway and USA. I am confident that we have several topics of mutual interest and that we are able to further develop the cooperation in a way that is beneficial for both countries.

Thank you for your attention.