INNOVATIVE AGRICULTURE: Challenges and Solutions For Sustainable and Competitive Food Production

Richard Auer-Welsbach is a farmer and forester in Schwadorf, Lower Austria. His organically-grown crops including wheat, maize, soya, pumpkins and sugar beet. The wood he produces is used mainly for biomass. He is vice-president of the Land&Forste Betriebe Österreich and sits on the advisory board of two insurance companies, Österreichischen Hagelversicherung and Niederösterreichischen Versicherung. He is a member of the crops committee of the Austrian Landwirtschaftskammer (chamber of agriculture). Auer-Welsbach is also involved with Sonne International, a development project in Ethiopia. Auer-Welsbach graduated in economics from Fachhochschule Weihenstephan. He has a diploma in international studies from the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna and a master’s degree in European integration and business law from Donau University in Krems.

Angelo Caserta has been regional director of BirdLife Europe and Central Asia since July 2009 and Global Director for Strategy at BirdLife International since November 2014. He is responsible for the implementation of the BirdLife conservation strategy at regional level and for the global processes and structures that support the implementation of the strategy at global level. Besides many other duties, he represents the BirdLife Partnership and Programme at the highest level to European-based institutions and organizations and promotes BirdLife’s priorities to key decision makers, businesses and centres of influence in Europe. He has over 20 years’ experience in NGOs, in the fields of fair trade, sustainable development and environmental protection. From 1999 to 2009 he worked with CONCORD, the Confederation of Development NGOs, coordinating actions to raise awareness and mobilise EU citizens’ support for development cooperation. From 1991 to 1999 he played a leading role in the fair trade movement in Italy and Europe, developing the European and Italian Charters of Fair Trade. Caserta graduated in physics from the University of Rome La Sapienza, with a thesis on chaos theory, which he currently applies in his daily job.

Caroline Drummond is Chief Executive of LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming), a farming and environmental charity she has run since its launch in 1991. Her work at LEAF focuses on encouraging more sustainable farming practices and building better public trust and understanding of farming, food and the environment. Caroline was awarded the MBE for services to the agricultural industry in 2009 and has a Doctor of Science (Hon D.Sc.) from Harper Adams University, a Nuffield Scholarship and was recently awarded an Honorary Fellowship for the Society of the Environment. She has been a director for the Rothamsted Research Institute, a governor for the Royal Agricultural University, a trustee for the Council for the Protection for Rural England, and a director for the Institute of Grassland and Environment Research and for the Oxford Farming Conference. She has sat on Defra’s Civil Society Advisory Board, Defra’s Red Tape Implementation Task Force and the Minister’s Green Food Project Steering Committee.

Vincent Gros has been head of the Europe region of BASF’s Crop Protection division as Senior Vice President since 2010. He is responsible for all EU and Commonwealth of Independent States countries, as well as for Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East. From 1992 to 2010 he held different positions at BASF in France where he was appointed Director, Business Management Crop Protection France and Managing Director of BASF Agro SAS and BASF Agri Production in 2005. In 2005 Gros was appointed Vice President, Communication, at the French crop protection association, Union des Industries de la Protection des Plantes (UIPP) and has been a member of the board of directors of the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) from 2005 and President in 2011 to 2013. Gros graduated as an engineer at the ENSAM in Montpellier.

Tassos Haniotis has been director for strategy, simplification and policy analysis in the European Commission’s Directorate General C for Agriculture and Rural development (DG AGRI) since 2016. Alongside, he is also acting deputy director general for Directorates A (international); B (quality, research, innovation and outreach) and C. Haniotis currently represents the executive body in the G20's Rapid Response Forum, which he chaired in 2020-21. During his 32-year career in the European Commission, Haniotis has held a variety of positions including director of economic analysis in DG AGRI from 2009 –to 2015, head of unit of agricultural policy analysis and perspectives in DG AGRI from 2007 to2010. Previously, he served as deputy head of cabinet of former European commissioner for agriculture Franz Fischler , and as agricultural counsellor within the European Commission’s Delegation in the U.S.. Haniotis holds an MSc and a PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Georgia in the U.S., as well as a BA in economics from Athens University of Economics and Business.

Jan Huitema is a Dutch MEP for the Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie party, which belongs to the Renew Europe political Group. Huitema was re-elected to the European Parliament in 2019, having firstly been elected in 2014. He is a member of the committee on environment, public health and food safety (ENVI) and is the rapporteur on the Circular Economy Action Plan for this committee from 2014 to 2019, he was a member of the committee on agriculture and rural development (AGRI), where he acted as a rapporteur on fertilizer products and water reuse. He holds a bachelor’s degree in animal sciences and subsequently obtained a master’s degree in animal production systems in 2008 from Wageningen University.

Tom MacMillan is director of innovation at the Soil Association, a British-based non-profit promoting better food and farming. The Soil Association is best known for campaigns on issues like the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture and as UK's leading certifier of organic food. MacMillan’s role is to support continuous improvement in farming in line with organic principles. He leads Innovative Farmers, a network that backs hands-on R&D by farmers, providing peer group support, funding and research expertise. Before joining the Soil Association in 2011, Tom was executive director of the Food Ethics Council. He has served on various advisory groups and boards, including the expert advisory panel for the UK Cabinet Office Food Matters report, ScienceWise, the BBSRC Science and Society Strategy Panel, and the boards of Sustain and the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership. His Ph.D. investigated the use and abuse of science in food regulation.

Richard Maycock is Regulatory, Product Stewardship and Government Affairs Leader for Europe, Middle East Africa and Asia Pacific at Dow AgroSciences. He joined Dow AgroSciences nearly 30 years ago where he has held numerous positions in environmental chemistry, ecotoxicology, and regulatory affairs for crop protection chemicals. He began his career at the Royal Free Hospital School of medicine working in medical physics. He then joined the UK Government holding various laboratory and field positions in environmental and human health assessment. Maycock has been engaged with various initiatives internationally, some of which have supported the development of new legislation in the European Union such as the EU Water Framework Directive, and the EU Regulation (EC 1107/2009) for Plant Protection Product approvals. Additionally Richard is an active contributor at the OECD including opportunties for international joint regulatory reviews.

Mairead McGuinness is an Irish MEP, a member of the European People’s Party (EPP) group and a Vice-President of the European Parliament. She was first elected in 2004 and is a member of the European Parliament’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee and a substitute member of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee. She works on the future shape of agriculture policy and rural development, global development policy, environment, public health and food safety and security. She was EPP’s lead negotiator on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and drafted a major report on the future of the CAP and Global Food Security. Currently, Mairead is drafting the Agriculture Committee's opinion on unfair trading practices in the food supply chain and has responsibility for the Parliament's scientific research body, Science and Technology Options Assessment, which aims to bridge the gap between the scientific community and policymakers.

Ladislav Miko has been Deputy Director-General for the Food Chain in the European Commission’s health and food safety department (DG SANTE) since January 2011. His portfolio covers issues of food safety throughout the whole food chain, including plant and animal health, pesticides, biotechnology, food hygiene, nutrition and food sustainability. He was also acting Director-General in 2014 to 2015. From 2005 to 2010, he was Director for Nature in the Commission’s environment department. During the Czech Presidency of the EU in 2009 he was appointed minister of the environment in the Czech government. Before he started his career in the Commission, he was deputy minister in the Czech environment ministry. Before that, he worked for nine years as a professional soil biologist in Slovak Academy of Sciences. He holds a doctorate in zoology and ecology and he is Associate Professor of Prague University of Life Sciences and Guest Professor at University of Antwerp.

Pekka Pesonen is the Secretary General of Copa, representing European farmers, and Cogeca, representing European agri-cooperatives since 2006. Together, Copa Cogeca count more than 70 national farming organisations from across Europe. Previously, he served as State Secretary for the Finnish Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry for a year. From 1997 to 2005, Pesonen developed professional experience in EU lobbying and in the Finnish food industry. Pesonen holds an MSc in Agriculture from the Helsinki University.

Ian Pigott runs a diversified farming business in Hertfordshire, UK. He spent his early career in the City of London. It was during this time that he was awoken to the public's growing disconnect with food and farming. Since then he has committed much of his time to the education of the public and in particular young people about food, farming and the countryside. The farm is in higher level stewardship and operates cover cropping and zero-til across 2000 acres. Ian opened his education facility, The Farmschool in 2014. The programme hosts food, farming and cooking visits for several thousand children from inner city and local schools. He is chairman of FACE (Farming and Countryside Education) and sits on the steering group for the Farming and Agri-Food Careers initiative Bright Crop. Pigott is a Nuffield Scholar, the founder of Open Farm Sunday and a columnist for the Farmers Weekly.