(Brussels) In the future, the Commission of EU Bishops Conferences (Comece) will focus on the challenges thrown “at farmers and farming in a time of key changes in their living and working conditions”. This can be read in a post on the website of Comece a few days after an event organised in January with the German Catholic Farmers Movement (Klb), the German Bishops Conference (Dbk) and the Central German Catholic Committee (Zdk), as part of the 11th Forum on rural development that took place in Berlin. “Farmers and rural areas are under pressure. They are expected to produce safe, quality food at affordable prices, as well as renewable energy sources; to provide recreational areas and protect the environment and biodiversity”, the post reads. “Farmers are more and more of businessmen”, not least because they use “advanced technology” in all areas of their work. One of the key issues is the “lack of general renewal” in a “haemorrhage that has no simple remedy”. That’s why the Church is aware it is called to “understand and support” such processes in the attempt to find “effective solutions through dialogue with EU institutions and social partners”.