PPILOW’s People: Laura Van Vooren!

I am Laura Van Vooren, project manager for Bioforum. BioForum is the sectoral organization for organic agriculture in Flanders. BioForum serves the interests of the whole organic sector in Flanders, covering the farmers, retailers, distributors, processing industries, food services, but also scientific institutions and civil society organisations.

In PPILOW, I am a NPG (National Pratictioner Group) facilitator for two NPGs: one on pigs and one on layers. Both NPGs focus on organic production. Within these NPGs, main relevant animal welfare issues in both sectors are identified. The goal of both NPGs is to tackle these issues by means of broadly supported levers and whole chain involvement. For this, both interaction within the NPG as with other WPs in the PPILOW project is needed. The main focus of the layers’ NPG is currently on parasitic infections and on design of the outdoor area. In the pigs NPG, castration and design of the outdoor area are two priorities.