03 October 2026, Frick: Jürn Sanders is Chairman of the FiBL Management Board. In this interview, he discusses the consequences of the hot summer for agriculture and organic farming. In our “Voices of Climate” he calls for a systemic approach to better support producers in preparing for and coping with future droughts.
“That disheartening realisation that the scientific analyses we’ve been carrying out at FiBL for many years have been so thoroughly confirmed”, says Jürn Sanders when asked what he takes away from the summer of 2026. A brief respite from the drought, with a little rainfall in early September, has long since evaporated, and the agricultural and food sectors are hoping that next summer will be less extreme.
For Sanders, one thing is clear: climate protection remains vital. “We must find a way to reduce the CO₂ content in the atmosphere”, says Sanders, “and we can do so – after all, we have effective tools at our disposal. At the same time, however, there is also a need to address the issues of climate resilience and adaptation. This is becoming more urgent every year, which is why we have set out in the FiBL strategy that, in the future, we intend to tackle climate protection and climate resilience in a targeted and combined manner”, he adds.
In this context, Sanders points out that the fundamental principle of organic farming is, after all, to achieve the highest possible level of systemic stability. “When we look at livestock, it is not just a question of farms having animals that are characterised by particularly high productivity, but also that they are robust. And the same applies to crop production. These are the fundamental elements of organic farming”, says Sanders. “And that is precisely why we are seeing many conventional farmers taking an interest in organic practices. In that respect, I believe the appeal of organic farming has been strengthened.”
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