Concetta Vazzana, Italy
Prof. Concetta Vazzana is full Professor at Department of Agrifood Production and Environmental Sciences, University of Florence (UNIFI-DISPAA), leading the Sustainable Agriculture and Land Management research group. She has been Director of the Department of Agronomy and Land Management, and President of the degree course in Agricultural Sciences and Technologies of the Agricultural Faculty.
Her main research interests address agroecology and biodiversity. She has coordinated national project and unit leadership in EU projects, as well as of supervision of PhD students. In 1982/83 she started teaching Agricultural Ecology at the University of Florence, the second Italian chair after prof. Caporali in 1980 at Tuscia University.
She is author of the book “Ecologia Agraria” from Patron Editor, Bologna (1998). At early 2000s she coordinated the first Masters in Ecological Agriculture (Organic and Biodynamic) which had fifth editions. In the last three decades she has lead one of the most advanced experiments on organic agriculture of the Mediterranean area, namely the Montepaldi Long Term Experiment (MOLTE) on a comparative analysis between organic and conventional arable cropping systems.
Caterina Batello, Italy
Caterina Batello was Team Leader of the Agroecology and Ecosystem Management for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome from 2010 to 2018. During her leadership, a “Scaling up Agroecology Initiative” was
developed and launched in 2018 with the collaboration of many United Nations agencies and national research institutions and farmers organizations following a long and participatory process.
This coordinated national/regional/ global process enabled FAO to obtain in October 2018 an important political consensus (shared by over one hundred FAO member countries) on adopting Agroecology as an important path for sustainability during COAG (Committee on Agriculture 2018).
Ioanna Dialyna, Greece
Ioanna Dialyna is based in the region of Plateau Lasithi, Central Crete. She studied Agronomy at the TEI of Crete and in Ecological Agriculture at University of Kassel, Germany.
Her upbringing in her family’s farm, spending her childhood with her grandpa along with his goats and sheep living in this unique region of Crete, has been the driving force to develop organic agriculture following agroecological principles at her own farm, being an inspirational model and example for every farmer at Plateau Lasithi. Because of her willing to initiate consumers to the benefits of healthy diet, Ioanna is joining the local farmer’s market at Heraklion, interacting with them, informing them of the way her products are cultivated.