Dear colleagues
Please save the date for another enjoyable trip!
The German Guild of Agricultural Journalists VDAJ and ENAJ invite you to a Low Budget Press Trip covering approaches for successful sustainable wine and vegetable production strategies in the Palatinate (Pfalz). You will visit farms, wineries and a research institute and speak to farmers, winemakers, researchers and stakeholders. We are sure there will be inspiring ideas, and your readers and target groups will appreciate your stories!

Reben
Attached you will find a few details about the trip:
Topic: Sustainable vegetable and wine growing in the Palatinate
Date: July 6th to 8th 2023
Location: Schifferstadt, South of Palatinate (Pfalz), Southern Germany
Hotel: Hotel zur Kanne https://www.hotelzurkanne.de, Kirchenstraße 7-11, 67105 Schifferstadt
Partcipation fee and number of participants
180 Euro, including two overnight stays, dinners on Thursday and Friday evening, breakfast and & lunch snack on Saturday, bus transportation on Friday and Saturday (after the end of the programme, the bus will leave you at the hotel in Schifferstadt or the main train station in Mannheim). Not included are the travel arrangements to Schifferstadt and back home
Accomodation
Hotel Zur Kanne, Kirchenstraße 7-11, 67105 Schifferstadt, https://www.hotelzurkanne.de
Travel arrangements
Please organize the travel yourself as follows:
If you arrive by train:
Mannheim, the main train station, is a very well-connected train station. All 20 minutes, there is a regional train (S-Bahn) to Schifferstadt, which takes 14 minutes.
If you arrive by plane:
Frankfurt am Main (best option), any other airport with a suitable ICE connection with Mannheim main station.
Maximum number of participants: 25 s (max 2 per country)

Hotel zur Kanne
A little bit of background to the Region and our trip
The theme is innovative ideas for sustainable vegetable and wine production. The focus is on the requirements for vegetable growers and vintners to optimize plant protection and fertilization to protect groundwater and biodiversity. We visit a research institute for grapevine breeding, successful winemakers producing both integrated and organic dynamically, and vegetable farms pursuing sustainable strategies.
The CAP goals are a challenge for crop production, husbandry, and special crops such as wine, fruit and vegetable growing. On the one side, it is necessary to reduce pesticides and fertilizers to protect groundwater and biodiversity; on the other side, special crops are highly sensitive to pests. Furthermore, the availability of pesticides is decreasing, and climate change increases the emergence of harmful insects and drought stress on plants. Therefore winemakers and vegetable producers need innovative ideas and strategies to succeed in the future.
In Southern Palatinate, near the French region of Grand Est (capital Metz), wine and vegetable production has a long tradition. Vegetable growers supply the metropoles of Frankfurt and Stuttgart, and the wines of the Palatinate find customers across borders.
Preliminary programme
Thursday, July 6
Arrival in Schifferstadt at your own preferable time.A meal or a snack will be served around dinner time, also for those who arrive later in the evening.
Friday, July 7
Visit of Julius Kühne Institut, Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Grapevine Breeding Geilweilerhof https://www.julius-kuehn.de/en/zr/ Insights in actual research projects, visit of the wineyards, wine tasting of mold resistant grapes.
Saturday, July 8
Visit in the morning, end of the programme by 2 pm.
Registration deadline
Please mail a.krebs@bauernzeitung.ch if you are interested in taking part in the trip. The registration deadline will be June 15th. We will update you with the complete programme as soon as it’s ready.
Thank you for being so interested. We hope to see you soon in the Palatinate!
Katharina Seuser (VDAJ/ENAJ), Friedericke Krick (VDAJ) and Adrian Krebs (ENAJ LBPT coordinator)

A view of Bingen am Rhein, Germany. Credit: Innokentiy Depositphotos