Sustainable rural development: What is the role of the agri-food sector?

This volume of proceedings, available both as hard copy and pdf, is an edited compilation of selected contributions to the IAMO Forum 2007, which will be held in Halle (Saale), Germany, at the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe from 27 to 29 June 2007. We would like to thank all those persons and organisations who contributed to the realisation of the IAMO Forum 2007 and the volume in hand. First of all, we thank all lecturers, whose commitment and papers made both the conference and the publication possible. Furthermore, we appreciate the financial support provided by the Federal Ministry of, Food, Agriculture, and Consumer Protection and the Federal State of Saxony-Anhalt. The conference would not be successful without the active engagement of such a large number of colleagues from IAMO, that we cannot mention them here. We wish to express our deepest gratitude to all of them. For improving the book languagewise and supporting us in its technical production our thanks go to JAMES CURTISS and SILKE SCHARF.