1 Agriculture and the Environment: New Challenges for Engineers

Abstract. Agriculture is embedded into global trends, national legislation, and public demands. The paper starts with a collection of mainstream needs and global trends. Furthermore, the de-mands on agriculture, formulated by different groups, are compiled. Agricultural engineering can contribute to sustainable (competitive, protecting the environment, socially compatible) pro-duction techniques by design of intelligent machinery (mechatronics) and applications of bio-logical engineering. Some examples from animal husbandry (voice analysis; computerized air flow simulations) are presented. Applications in communication and energetic use of agricul-tural products are addressed, too