Preface

The 1 st International Conference on Sustainable Vegetable Oils: “Socio-economic and Ecological Approaches” (The 1 st VOICe 2023) Hybrid Conference, 30 th November 2023 IPB International Convention Center (IICC), Baranangsiang, Bogor The global demand for sustainable practices in agriculture and industry has never been more urgent. Vegetable oils are pivotal in various sectors, from food and cosmetics to biofuels and pharmaceuticals. However, their production’s ecological footprint and socio-economic implications are significant considerations today. Vegetable oil crops, such as oil palm, soybean, sunflower, and rapeseed, are essential commodities in the global agricultural sector. The production and use of vegetable oils to support food security cannot be avoided from issues related to ecological, socio-economic, market and policy, and sustainable production aspects. Sustainable commodities are on the agenda of various parties with various initiatives to get an agreed approach or effort and show progress. Often, sustainability indicators are compared with the sustainability of natural forests. On the other hand, the comparison with the sustainability of natural forests needs to be balanced. Sustainability indicators should be compared between commodities with comprehensive information. Recognizing the paramount importance of sustainability in vegetable oil production, especially in formulating effective regulatory recommendations, IPB University, in partnership with Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS) Indonesia, welcomes you to the inaugural International Conference on Sustainable Vegetable Oils: “Socio-economic and Ecological Approaches” . This event addresses the intricate interplay of socio-economic and ecological approaches in the quest for comprehensive solutions. Scheduled as a hybrid event on 30th November 2023, online event was conducted by Zoom platform for organizing the Invited Speakers from another country, and the offline event was conducted at the IPB International Convention Center (IICC) in Bogor, West Java. The theme of this Conference was divided into 4 (four) important sub-topics, including (i) Ecological Aspects with a sub sub topics; climate changes, land degradation, decrease biodiversity, Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), and Essestioal Oil (patchouli, sandalwood, ylang ylang, vetiver, citranolle fragrant, and other commodity, (ii) Socio-Economic Aspects with a sub sub topics; distribution and trading of vegetable oils, sustainable economic strategie, farmer welfare, labor rights and community empowerment (in the contects of vegetable oils), Essestioal Oil (patchouli, sandalwood, ylang ylang, vetiver, citranolle fragrant, and other commodity, (iii) Market and Policy Aspects with a sub sub topics; business opportunities, Global Trade Challenges (CPO, Cooking Oils, Oleochemical, Biodisel, ets), The Role of Vegetable oils in regional and National Development, Essestioal Oil (patchouli, sandalwood, ylang ylang, vetiver, citranolle fragrant, and other commodity, and (iv) Sustainable Production Aspect with sub sub topic process of production, palm oil an other vegetable oils commodities (rapeseed, soybean, sunflowers, coconut, olive, etc), processed products (cooking oils, oleochemicals, biodesel, etc), Essestioal Oil (patchouli, sandalwood, ylang ylang, vetiver, citranolle fragrant, and other commodity. The Conference was conducted one day and was attended by 2 (two) keynote speakers i.e., Fajril Amirul (Senior Manager in Oil Palm Replanting and Agricultural Faculties and Infrastructure, Palm Oil Fund Management Agency), and Gadis Ranty (Coordinator for Agriculture and Commodity Development, Directorate of Trade, Industry, Commodity & Intelectual Property, The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Indonesia). The keynote speakers delivered the presentation in 20 minutes, divided into 15 minutes presentation session and 5 minutes for Q&A sessions. The Invited Speakers session was divided into 2(two) sessions; we have 3 speakers for each session. This conference was also attended by 6 (six) invited speakers, i.e., Joaan De Zegher (Assistant Professor of Operations Management at MIT Sloan/The Founder Pempem, Montreal, Canada), Pedro Garcia (The Sustainability Coordinator, ABIOVE Brazil), Dr Jiaoping Zhang (Associate Professor in the National Center for Soybean Improvement (NCIS), Nanjing Agricultural University, China. And the other 3 (three) speaker was, i.e., dr.ir. MA (Maja) Slingerland (Associate Professor of Plant Production Systems, Wageningen and Research University, The Netherlands, Dr. Ram Swaroop Bana (ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India), and Prof. Dr. Viorel ION (Professor, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest. This invited speaker session was held in 20 minutes, divided into 15 minutes of presentation and 5 minutes of Q&A. The number of participants who attended the 1 st VOICe Conference was 93 participants, including Indonesian participants and international participants from 7 (seven) countries, i.e., Indonesia, Taiwan, China, Netherlands, Romania, Brazil, and the USA. The presentation session was divided into 5 breakout rooms based on conference sub-topics with each presenter delivering a 10-minute talk for presentation and 5 minutes for Q&A. The presentation is divided into two sessions. The first session is for the offline presenter, and we have to do two rooms (Room A and B) in IICC, IPB University, Bogor. We have five breakout rooms with different topics in the second session for the online presenters. There were no technical problems during the event, and the event went according to schedule on time. List of Symposium Committee, Proceeding Organizing Committee, Scientific Committee and List of Participant are available in this Pdf.