Matthias Krön was born in Salzburg in 1969. After his studies in Vienna, Taipei, and New York and his return to Austria in 1995, he started working in the dairy business. He established Mona Naturprodukte, one of the major suppliers in the dairy sector for dairy alternatives based on soya, rice, and oats in Austria. Kroen became CEO and also a partner of the Mona Group. In the autumn of 2011 stepped down as CEO to concentrate on the soy associations: The Austrian soya association was founded in 2008 and the International Donau Soja Association in 2012. In his role as President of the Donau Soja association, Kroen advocates a sustainable and regional protein supply in Europe.

Panel Description

This panel discussion will focus on:

- How to transform the primary/agricultural sector?

- Policy: What can politicians do to help to transform the agricultural system (regulations, subsidies, farmer buy-outs, CO2 taxes)?

- Farmers: Are farmers willing and economically able to reduce their number of livestock drastically (70%)?

- World market: How does the global community need to act on this? Let’s say one country reduces livestock production, wouldn’t the supermarkets just import from other countries?