wednesday meetings

Woke up Wednesday and there was a nice fall chill in the air. It was probably 45 out. It reminded me of home. My first meeting was with the Head of the organic unit for DG agriculture and his right hand man. Very interesting conversation about US standards, the attempt at reciprocal standards, the issue of labeling things "natural" or in the EU's case, "from the farm" and the impact on organic markets these labels have. It was also interesting discussing the differences in the relationships between organic and conventional farmers in the EU and in the US. It helps things relationship-wise when there are hardly any GMO crops grown in the EU!

Next was a great meeting with Peter Vis - a member of cabinet of the EU commissioner for energy. The maps he had on the walls showing the gas pipeline and especially the wind power and off shore wind power that is already on line and proposed was amazing. Great Briton has plans for 20,000mw of off shore wind. YES, 20,000. they estimate that there is the potential for energy production 7X what the EU needs off shore. It helps that in the north sea they are working in depths of 60 meters or so, so no need for floating turbines. I imagine the gulf of Maine is deeper than 60 meters, but if any of the test areas currently proposed are at that depth - lets get a move on because we are WAY behind. the steel they are putting up right now is just unbelievable. we also talked about the EU's cap and trade program, the difficulties of starting it and our own REGGI.