2026 Regional Event Ireland

Throughout the year, the Forum for the Future of Agriculture organises regional conferences and online events to discuss agriculture and the environment at a national level across Europe. On Tuesday, June 2, 2026 we moved to Dublin, Ireland for our latest event.

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2026: Regional event Ireland – Introduction and panel 1

Nina Carberry, Stewart Gee, Rose O’Donovan, Mark Titterington, Martin Voss

2026: Regional event Ireland – Panel 2

Jurgen Tack, Rose O’Donovan, Brendan Dunford, Doug McMillan, Matteo Vanzini

2026: Regional event Ireland – Panel 3

Blandine Camus, Elaine Houlihan, Brigitte Misonne, Rose O’Donovan, Jan-Erik Petersen

Confirmed speakers (in alphabetical order)

Blandine Camus

Food Systems Officer, IUCN

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Blandine Camus

Food Systems Officer, IUCN

Blandine Camus serves as Food Systems Officer within the IUCN European Regional Office team. Based in Brussels, she has been actively engaged in advancing policy solutions for agriculture, climate adaptation and sustainable local development. She has built her expertise by working at the intersection of policy, science and communication collaborating with farmers, researchers and policymakers. She holds a Master's degree in Political Science and European Affairs from Sciences Po Strasbourg.

Nina Carberry

MEP, European Parliament

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Nina Carberry

MEP, European Parliament

Nina Carberry is a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) representing the Midlands Northwest. As an active member of Fine Gael and the European People’s Party (EPP)—the largest political group in the European Union—Nina Carberry also serves on three key committees: Transport and Tourism (TRAN), International Trade (INTA), and Budget (BUDG).

Furthermore, Nina Carberry is an accomplished jockey who has been a two-time champion amateur and a leading lady rider on 12 occasions. She achieved a notable victory in the Irish Grand National in 2011, and she has celebrated seven winners at the prestigious Cheltenham Festival.

In addition to her racing career, Nina Carberry is a horse breeder, has held a trainer’s license, and has consigned horses at top sales events. Moreover, Nina Carberry is a television personality, having won “Dancing with the Stars” and served as a coach on “Ireland’s Fittest Family.” As a children’s author, Nina has also written the successful “Rowan Tree Stables” series.

Barry Cowen

Member of the European Parliament

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Barry Cowen

Member of the European Parliament

Barry Cowen was elected in June 2024 to the European Parliament as an MEP for the Midlands North-West constituency. He now serves on the European Parliament’s Agriculture and International Trade committees where he focuses on securing better outcomes for farmers, advancing renewable energy and safeguarding Ireland’s pro-enterprise economy.

A native of county Offaly, Barry has over three decades of experience in public office, beginning as a local councillor and later serving as a member of Dáil Éireann from 2011 to 2024 where he represented the Laois-Offaly constituency.

During his time in national politics, Barry held several prominent roles within Fianna Fáil, including key spokesperson and Programme for Government negotiating team positions, as well as serving as Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in 2020.

Brendan Dunford

Founder, the Burrenbeo Trust

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Brendan Dunford

Founder, the Burrenbeo Trust

Brendan Dunford is a founder of, and volunteer with, the Burrenbeo Trust, a charity dedicated to promoting and enabling community stewardship across Ireland. Within Burrenbeo, Brendan works directly on projects including The Hare’s Corner, Farming for Nature and the Burren Winterage Weekend. Between 2005-2022 he led the award-winning BurrenLIFE Project and its successor, the Burren Programme, an early pioneer of result-based payment schemes. He is also a co-founder of Project ReFarm which uses blended finance to support nature restoration on Irish farmland.

Brendan is a Fellow of Ashoka’s Global network of Social Entrepreneurs and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Galway in 2018 for his work in championing farmland biodiversity. He is author of Farming and the Burren and co-author of the Farming for Nature Handbook. Originally from a farming background in Co. Waterford, Brendan has spent over 25 years living and working in the Burren region.

Stewart Gee

Orchestrator Ireland Land Agri-Food Deep Demonstration, Climate KIC

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Stewart Gee

Orchestrator Ireland Land Agri-Food Deep Demonstration, Climate KIC

Stewart Gee works for EIT Climate KIC, working on bringing about innovations in the Irish Agri Food system that will enable Ireland to meet its sustainability targets. 

Climate KIC is Europe’s leading climate innovation agency and community, mobilising systems change in countries, regions, cities and businesses. They orchestrate solutions and facilitate learning to bridge the gap between climate commitments and current reality. Climate KIC was founded in 2010 upon the initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. Today, as an independent foundation, they work with partners across the globe to drive faster and more ambitious climate action in Europe and beyond to build climate-resilient communities and fight climate breakdown.

Elaine Houlihan

Former President, Macra

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Elaine Houlihan

Former President, Macra

Elaine Houlihan, 30 years old from a small rural village of Athlacca in County Limerick, was the National President of Macra from 2023 to 2025 which is the young farmers organisation in Ireland.

Doug McMillan

Founder, The Green Restoration Ireland Cooperative (GRI)

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Doug McMillan

Founder, The Green Restoration Ireland Cooperative (GRI)

Doug McMillan has a PhD in Environmental Sciences part of which focused on the ecology and water quality of Abbeyleix Bog before its restoration. He has over 25 years of combined experience in academic research, consultancy, environmental monitoring and training in the fields of ecology, environmental science, EHS, laboratory, carbon, energy, sustainability and quality management systems and auditing.  

He is a founder of the Green Restoration Ireland Cooperative (GRI) which was established in 2019 and also manages several projects such as the Farm Carbon EIP, the Farm Carbon Transitions EIP and the Peatlands for Prosperity. During the Farm Carbon EIP, GRI developed innovative approaches to help farmers restore damaged peatlands and other farm habitats including Ireland’s first on-farm paludiculture (wetland agriculture) trials and other measures to maximise carbon storage and biodiversity in the agricultural landscape. This work is being continued through follow-up projects. 

Link to the Peatlands for Prosperity project: https://greenrestorationireland.coop/peatlands-for-prosperity/

Link to the Farm Carbon Transitions EIP project: https://greenrestorationireland.coop/farm-carbon-transitions/

Link to website: https://greenrestorationireland.coop/

Brigitte Misonne

Acting Director AGRI E ‘Markets’, Head of Unit AGRI E3 ‘Animal Products’, European Commission

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Brigitte Misonne

Acting Director AGRI E ‘Markets’, Head of Unit AGRI E3 ‘Animal Products’, European Commission

Brigitte Misonne is Head of Unit for Animal Products in DG AGRI, European Commission. She holds overall responsibility for monitoring market developments, analysing economic trends, building-up market knowledge and designing EU market support measures in the animal product sectors. She is also responsible for the Honey Directive currently under review and for a 3-year engagement with the JRC on a project addressing the need for validated methods of analysis that are fit-for-purpose to detect new types of sugar-based adulterants in honey.

Jan-Erik Petersen

Expert – Ecosystems and Accounting, Biodiversity and Nature Unit, European Environment Agency

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Jan-Erik Petersen

Expert – Ecosystems and Accounting, Biodiversity and Nature Unit, European Environment Agency

Jan-Erik works since 2001 at the European Environment Agency (EEA) in Copenhagen, starting as project manager responsible for the area of agriculture and environment. From 2001 to 2008 he had lead responsibility for the development of EU agri-environmental indicators, related sectoral assessments and agriculture policy analysis, work on EU bioenergy production as well as cooperation with EU institutions. From January 2009 to December 2015 Jan-Erik was head of group for ‘Major Integrated Assessments’ and ‘Assessment Methods’. Since January 2016 he has focused on Natural Capital Accounting, his tasks including representing EEA in the EU project on ‘Accounting for natural capital and ecosystem services’ (‘KIP INCA’) .

Another important responsibility of Jan-Erik is overseeing the development of the ‘Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services’ (CICES) and contributing to the UN statistical standard on ecosystem accounting

A particular focus of Jan-Erik’s work over the last five years has been EEA’s contribution to EU processes on the development of biodiversity and ecosystem monitoring. This covers all kinds of data, satellite data, statistical sources, citizen science as well as other innovative methods. He also continues to manage EEA’s work on High Nature Value Farmland and extensive grazing systems.

Ricard Ramon I Sumoy

Head of Unit, Policy Perspectives, DG AGRI, European Commission

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Ricard Ramon I Sumoy

Head of Unit, Policy Perspectives, DG AGRI, European Commission

Ricard Ramon is the Head of Unit in charge of policy perspectives at DG AGRI (European Commission). He is currently working on the CAP for the period post-2027, the new Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) as well as the future Farmland Observatory and the on-farm sustainability compass. For the last 25 years he worked on strategy, analysis, design and implementation of agricultural policy in the EU. He has been directly involved on the policy design and negotiations of the last three reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), as well as the preparation and approval of the current CAP Strategic Plans for the period 2022-2027. More recently, he was part of task force which supported the works of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture (2024) and coordinated the works on the Vision for Agriculture and Food (2025), which defines the strategic roadmap for the future actions of the Commission for the years ahead. He studied at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the London School of Economics.

Jurgen Tack

Secretary General, European Landowners' Organization

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Jurgen Tack

Secretary General, European Landowners' Organization

Jurgen Tack studied biology (marine ecology) at Brussels Free University where he also obtained his PhD in Sciences. Within the Framework of the Kenya Belgium Project in Marine Sciences (Coastal Farms Kenya) he developed a number of oyster farms along the Kenyan coast. In 2000 he joined the team of the Belgian Biodiversity Platform (Belgian Science Policy Office) where he was responsible for European and international science policy in the field of biodiversity and biodiversity related research. In 2007 he became the CEO of the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (a research organization under the umbrella of the Flemish Authority). In 2015 he became Secretary-General of the National Science Foundation (Flanders) In 2016 he took the position of Scientific Director at the European Landowners’ Organization (ELO), CEO at Landelijk Vlaanderen (Flemish Landowners’ Organisation) and CEO of the Aanspreekpunt Privaat Beheer Natuur en Bos (an advisory organ for private landowners on the management of nature and forest). In 2023 he became Secretary-General of the European Landowners Organisation (ELO). He coordinates several EU projects on private land conservation. On behalf of ELO he chairs the European Commission’s Large Carnivore Platform and acts as expert for the EU Biodiversity Platform and the EU Expert Group on Cultural Heritage.

Albena Taneva

Policy Officer, Directorate General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission

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Albena Taneva

Policy Officer, Directorate General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission

Albena Taneva is a Policy Officer in the Access to Finance unit at the European Commission in the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. The unit’s mission is to steer policies for access to repayable forms of finance for industry, with a particular focus on SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups, as well as to direct public and private finance towards EU policy objectives, such as the green and digital transformation, and to enhance competitiveness through financing.

Prior to joining the Commission 20 years ago, Albena worked for more than 6 years in the Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture with responsibilities related to budget preparation and the accession negotiation of Bulgaria to the EU in the area of agriculture. In the Commission, she worked for DG Agriculture and Rural Development and DG Regional and Urban Policy. In DG GROW, Albena’s tasks are related to the strategic planning, scoping and programming of financial products under the SME window of InvestEU and overseeing implementation of the InvestEU SME window. She is also part of the GROW team for the next MFF’s European Competitiveness Fund.

She holds a Master degree in Economics from the Sofia University (Bulgaria).

Mark Titterington

Co-founder and member of the Advisory Council, Forum for the Future of Agriculture

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Mark Titterington

Co-founder and member of the Advisory Council, Forum for the Future of Agriculture

Mark is a Co-founder and a former Director of the Forum for the Future of Agriculture. He is now a Member of the Forum’s Advisory Council and a Senior Fellow at the Transatlantic Policy Network. Mark joined SpiritsEUROPE as their Director-General in September 2025, having enjoyed a long career in the agri-food sector, principally at Syngenta where he held several senior leadership and executive level positions in corporate affairs and business sustainability in the EAME region and globally. After leaving Syngenta in 2017, Mark became the CEO of EngineeringUK before joining Indigo Ag, where he held a variety of different roles before becoming Head of Corporate Affairs and a Member of the Executive Team in 2024.  

Matteo Vanzini

Co-founder, Place Finance Lab

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Matteo Vanzini

Co-founder, Place Finance Lab

Matteo Vanzini is an innovative finance professional with a background in international development. Matteo started out in microfinance innovation to support small businesses and local economies. Over time he shifted toward sustainability and climate actions, working across agri-food and renewable energy, using blended finance, results-based finance, and impact investing to unlock capital at scale. Now deep into food systems and place-based transformation, Matteo co-founded the Place Finance Lab: a centre for financial innovation and regeneration that enables collaborative design of new structures that let finance flow towards regional, resilient food systems.

Martin Voss

Chief Innovation Officer, Oath Group

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Martin Voss

Chief Innovation Officer, Oath Group

With over 25 years of experience in the chemical and biological plant protection and nutrition, agribusiness, floriculture, and ingredients industries, I am on a mission to drive agricultural innovation and sustainability. As the Chief Innovation Officer at Oath Group, Martin leads a team of experts in Business Development, Field Sciences, Data Science and Regulatory Affairs.

Oath, a public benefit company, regenerates life in depleted soils globally with naturally occurring, beneficial microorganisms to address some of agriculture’s biggest challenges, including yield, nutrient density, and soil carbon.

Confirmed Moderators (in alphabetical order)

Rose O’Donovan

Journalist & Editor AgraFacts

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Rose O’Donovan

Journalist & Editor AgraFacts

Rose O’Donovan has been Editor of AGRA FACTS since March 2010, having previously served as Deputy Editor on the agricultural publication for nearly three years. Prior to working as a journalist, she dealt with international relations on the EU satellite navigation programme at the Galileo Joint Undertaking. Following the completion of a Master of Science at University College Cork (Ireland), Rose moved to Brussels in 2004 to work as an intern in the Cabinet of former European Parliament President, Pat Cox. Hailing from a farming background in West Cork, Rose is also the Brussels correspondent for The Southern Star - a regional newspaper based in Skibbereen. More information Twitter – @agrafacts LinkedIn - rose-o-donovan-91927517

Agenda

Jun 02, 2026

12:30 - 17:00 (Local Time)

12:30 - 13:30 (Local Time)

Networking lunch

13:30 - 14:15 (Local Time)

Panel 1: Driving agri-food system transformation in the EU

Message from Nina Carberry MEP

Panel session

• Stewart Gee, Orchestrator Ireland Land Agri-Food Deep Demonstration, Climate KIC
• Mark Titterington, Co-founder and member of the Advisory Council, Forum for the Future of Agriculture
• Martin Voss, Chief Innovation Officer, Oath Group
• Moderator: Rose O’Donovan, Chief Editor, AgraFacts

14:15 - 15:15 (Local Time)

Panel session 2: Financing the transition – deep dive

Panel discussion

• Brendan Dunford, Founder, the Burrenbeo Trust
• Douglas McMillan, Founder, The Green Restoration Ireland Cooperative (GRI)
• Jurgen Tack, Secretary General, European Landowners’ Organization
• Matteo Vanzini, Co-founder, Place Finance Lab, Climate-KIC
• Moderator: Rose O’Donovan, Chief Editor, AgraFacts

15:15 - 16:15 (Local Time)

Panel session 3: Sustainable livestock production

Panel discussion

• Blandine Camus, Food Systems Officer, IUCN
• Elaine Houlihan, Former President, Macra
• Brigitte Missone, Acting Director AGRI E ‘Markets’, Head of Unit AGRI E3 ‘Animal Products’, European Commission
• Jan-Erik Petersen, Expert – Ecosystems and Accounting, Biodiversity and Nature Unit, European Environment Agency
• Moderator: Rose O’Donovan, Chief Editor, AgraFacts

16:15 - 16:30 (Local Time)

European Competitiveness Fund by DG GROW

• Albena Taneva, Policy Officer, Directorate General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission

16:30 - 17:00 (Local Time)

Interview - Where we are on the CAP?

Interview

• Ricard Ramon, Head of Unit, Policy Perspectives, DG AGRI, European Commission
• Moderator: Rose O’Donovan, Chief Editor, AgraFacts

Closing remarks

• Barry Cowen, MEP

17:00 - 17:00 (Local Time)

Closing

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