2021 Striking the right chord to support nature-friendly farming

Pierre Bascou is the Director for Sustainability and income support, DG Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission. Between 2010 and 2014 he was Head of the Unit responsible for Agricultural Policy Analysis and Perspectives. From 2003 until 2009 he was heading the Unit in charge of the economic analysis of EU agriculture for the conception, the management and the evaluation of the Common Agricultural Policy. He received his PhD in Agricultural Economics (1989) from the Imperial College London, UK) and “Ingénieur” in agronomy from ESA Toulouse in 1986.

Dr. Marina Beermann studied Ecological Economics at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg, Socio-Economics at the Research Institute for Organic Agriculture in Frick / Switzerland and received her doctorate on the ‘Development of Entrepreneurial Resilience’. She worked as project coordinator of the food industry cluster in the BMBF research project ‘NordWest 2050: Perspectives for climate-adapted innovation processes in the metropolitan region of Bremen-Oldenburg in the northwest’ and lecturer in the field of sustainable food industry as well as a management consultant in the Otto Group (Systain Consulting GmbH). She has been leading the strategic partnership with Germany's largest food retailer EDEKA at WWF Germany since 2016 and is a lecturer at the Fresenius University in the Masters programme ‘Sustainable Marketing & Leadership’. More information Twitter – @Doktor_Beer Website - www.wwf.de

Jeen Nijboer is Food and Agri project manager at Rabobank Nederland. He started his career at Rabobank almost 20 years ago and has a strong affinity with the agricultural sector, given that he grew up on a dairy farm. He is involved in sustainability projects for the primary agricultural sectors. In this context, work is being done on the development of a biodiversitymonitor in collaboration with parties in the chain and WWF and the Open Soil Index. In addition, the development of the use of data into information for decision support for farmers is part of the work. Rabobank has three important pillars, namely access to finance, access to networks and access to knowledge. With the Global Farmers platform, Rabobank wants to give its agricultural customers worldwide substance to these pillars. This will contribute to a need from our customers to be able to further develop entrepreneurship to contribute to the global food issue: Growing a better world together.

Humberto Delgado Rosa is the Director for Natural Capital, DG Environment, European Commission. Previously he was Director for Mainstreaming Adaptation and Low Carbon Technology in DG Climate Action. He is experienced in European and international environmental policy, particularly in biodiversity and climate change issues. He served as Secretary of State for the Environment of the Portuguese Government from March 2005 to June 2011. Between 1995 and 2002 he was an advisor for environmental matters to the Prime-Minister of Portugal. He holds a PhD in Evolutionary Biology. H. Delgado Rosa was born in Lisbon in 1960.

Jabier Ruiz is Senior Policy Officer, Agriculture & Sustainable Food Systems, at the European Policy Office of WWF. Originally from the Basque Country and now based in Belgium, over the last few years he has been following closely the political debates on the Common Agricultural Policy, as well as the CAP implementation in the different Member States. Jabier has a university background in Forest Ecology and Engineering and has specialised throughout his PhD and career in the interactions between farming and environmental conservation.

Dr. Lena Schaller is Senior Scientist at the Institute of Agricultural and Forestry Economics at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU). In the last 10 years she has been focusing her research particularly on the provision of public goods and ecosystem services from agriculture, and is BOKU’s principal investigator in the H2020 project CONSOLE on innovative contract solutions for the delivery of agri-environmental-climate public goods by EU agriculture and forestry. In the recently started H2020 project SHOWCASE, Lena is one of the PIs leading the work package on incentives to promote biodiversity and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. Lena studied agricultural sciences at the Technical University of Munich and received her Doctorate in Agricultural Economics on the topic of climate-friendly agricultural peatland management in Germany.

Jessica Sinclair Taylor is Head of Policy and Media at Feedback, an environmental campaign group that aims to regenerate nature by transforming the food system. Jessica leads Feedback campaigns on food waste, sustainable diets and land use, including corporate engagement such as Feedback’s food waste and ‘less and better’ meat retailer rankings. Previously she worked in international development at the Overseas Development Institute and for social justice organisation the Child Poverty Action Group.