Dr. Jürgen Struck, correspondent of agrarzeitung from political Berlin, Stefan Dürr, Managing Director of Russia’s largest dairy operation, Dr. Uwe Terkhorn from Vion Zucht- und Nutzvieh GmbH, representing the processors‘ standpoint, and Dr. Bruno Kaesler came together to discuss the different perspectives on this controversial topic. It did not take long before all agreed that European agriculture generally produces on a highly efficient level in comparison to the rest of the world. Moving production to regions with lower efficiency would consume more raw materials and create higher emissions. Dr. Kaesler explained that further increases in efficiency are also possible in future and that feed additives also make an important contribution, even today, in fulfilling the ever increasing requirements, such as reducing emissions, by supplementation with amino acids, for example. But also the legal and social demands on animal welfare will play a role in the future of practical animal husbandry in Germany. Animal health is gaining in significance across the globe, even though there is no word in Russian for “animal welfare” as Stephan Dürr confirmed. Dr. Terkhorn from Vion is sure that vertical integrations will also gain in significance in the long-term in order to implement effective concepts, but the decision here lies in the hands of the farmers. He named the “better leven” concept by the Dutch company Albert Heijn as an example of a successful project of this kind. All parties agreed that Germany and Europe can maintain a high level of self-subsistence which will stabilize the trend towards regional products. The trend is thus heading more in the direction of wait and see.