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.