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Andre Leu
(IFOAM President)
Andre Leu is the author of
The Myths of Safe Pesticides and the President of IFOAM – Organics
International.
Andre has over 40 years
of experience in all areas of Organic Agriculture, from growing, pest-control,
weed management, marketing and post-harvest transport to grower organizations,
developing new crops and education - not only in his home country Australia,
but across Asia, Europe, the Americas and Africa.
He has written and
published extensively in magazines, newspapers, journals, conference
proceedings and newsletters in print and online on many areas of Organic
Agriculture including climate change, the environment and the health benefits
of organic agronomy. He was recently invited by the FAO to present research
findings from the organic movement at a high-level “Science Fair for a Safer
Tomorrow."
Prof. Dr. Gerold Rahmann (ISOFAR President)
Institute of Organic Farming
Johann Heinrich von Thuenen Institute, Germany
Prof Dr Gerold Rahmann is funding director (established in the year 2000) of
the Institute of Organic Farming at the Johann Heinrich von Thuenen-Institute
(vTI: www.vti.bund.de). The vTI is part of the research infrastructure of the
German ministry of consumer protection, agriculture and nutrition (BMELV) and
has the main subject to design sustainable resource use strategies in rural
areas, forestry and fisheries to advise the ministry at an excellent scientific
level. Prof. Rahmann is a socio-economist and specialized on New Farming
Systems Research and Development (NFSR+D) and has worked many years in
interdisciplinary teams in tropic and sub-tropic countries as well as in German
and EC projects related to low input farming systems. His recent research group
with 30 scientists focuses on the development of (a) organic animal husbandry,
(b) organic crop production and (c) organic grassland management. He has 38
peer-reviewed scientific, >250 other papers, and 15 books published. The
design of policy decision frameworks is an important part of his work.
Dr. Stefano Canali
Consiglio per la ricerca e la sperimentazione in
agricoltura (CRA)
Centro per lo studio delle relazioni tra pianta e suolo (RPS), Italy
Stefano Canali is senior scientist at the
Consiglio per la Ricerca e la sperimentazione in Agricoltura (CRA), Italy. He
has been involved in OFF research since the first ’90 and his activities have
been carried out in the framework of a number of research projects funded by
the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, the Italian Ministry of Research and the
European Union (V, VI and VII FP). He is the scientific coordinator of the
InterVeg “Enhancing multifunctional benefits of cover crops – vegetables
intercropping” (Core Organic II) and SoilVeg “Improving soil conservation and
resource use in organic cropping systems for vegetable production through
introduction and management of Agro-ecological Service Crops (ASC)” (Core
Organic Plus) research projects. He participates as expert in different working
groups and initiatives aimed at providing technical advice and scientific
support to the European and Italian Institutions devoted to strengthen the
administrative and institutional capacity of the organic food and farming
sector. He is vice president of the Italian Research Network for Organic Food
and Farming Research (RIRAB) and member of the Scientific Board of the Italian
Technological Platform for organic food and farming (PTBioIT).
Dr. Mahesh Chander
Division of Extension Education
Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar-243122 (UP) INDIA
Dr Mahesh Chander, is Principal Scientist with Indian
Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), holds PhD in Extension Education from Indian
Veterinary Research Institute and a certificate course (Organic Leadership
Course-OLC) in Organic Agriculture from IFOAM Academy, Germany. He has been
actively associated with Research & Development activities concerning
organic agriculture since early 1990s. He has been associated with IFOAM and
Sustainable Agriculture Network of Rainforest Alliance, USA as member of the
International Standards Committee. He has published and presented papers on
organic farming in several national and international conferences. Out of the
22 Masters and Doctoral students guided by him, 3 students completed theses on
organic livestock farming topics. He is a Member of ISOFAR since 2004. He
organized the National workshop on Organic Animal Husbandry Standards at Indian
Veterinary Research Institute in 2002, and also organized ICAR sponsored short
course on Organic animal husbandry standards: concepts, standards and practices
in 2006. When 1st & 2nd IFOAM International Conference on animals in
organic production were organized in 2006 & 2012, respectively at Minnesota
& Hamburg, he was one of the Programme Committee members. The book entitled
Organic Livestock Farming published by ICAR has been authored by him. He
received Bharat Ratna Dr C Subramaniam Award for Outstanding Teachers-2010 from
ICAR and Young Scientist award from Indian Society of Extension Education in
2005. Currently, he is Head, Division of Extension Education at Indian
Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, India.
Prof. Dr. Peter von Fragstein und Niemsdorff
University of Kassel
Department of Organic Vegetable Production
Faculty of Organic Agricultural Sciences, Witzenhausen, Germany
Peter von Fragstein und Niemsdorff is the leader
of the Section Organic Vegetable Production at the the Faculty of Organic
Agricultural Sciences, University of Kassel. His experience in acadamic
teaching and research on topics of organic agriculture and horticulture is
dating back over 30 years. In 1981 he followed Hardy Vogtmann as Senior
scientist from the University of Hohenheim to the new founded Department of
Methods of Alternative Farming Methods at the University of Kassel.
Prof. Dr. Victor Olowe
Institute of Food Security, Environmental Resources
and Agricultural Research (IFSERAR), Federal University of Agriculture, Nigeria
Victor Olowe became a full Research Professor
(Agronomy & Organic Agriculture) in October, 2008 and has actively
participated as an agronomist in several international research projects such
as soybean production and utilization project funded by IDRC & IITA
(1992-1993), soybean production and utilization mapping funded by a DFID
affiliate organization (February/March 2007), Work, Earn, Learn Project (WELP)
on capacity building of young agricultural graduates in organic agriculture in collaboration
with Coventry University, UK and funded by Department for Innovations,
Universities and Skills (DIUS), UK/British Council (2008-2009) and a
collaborative project involving six Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the
West African sub-region funded by the European Union (EU) (2010 -2012). He is
currently the Vice President of the national movement of organic agriculture in
Nigeria called Association of Organic Agriculture Practitioners of Nigeria
(NOAN).
Azad
University, Karaj, Iran, Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding
Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Dr. M. Reza Ardakani brings to the ISOFAR over 18 years of international
research/teaching experience in the area of organic agriculture. He is a Full
Professor of Agroecology and Organic farming in the Faculty of Agriculture and
Natural Resources, Azad University, Karaj, Iran. In 2007, he joined to the
Department of Organic Farming, University of Natural Resources and Life
Sciences Vienna, Austria where he worked as a Post Doctoral Fellow. Upon moving
to Canada in 2012, he worked as a Research Fellow at the Department of Plant
Agriculture, University of Guelph and later on as a Research Associate at the
Department of Environmental and Resource Studies, Trent University. His areas
of research interest are Cropping Systems, Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition
in Sustainable Agroecosystems. He is well experienced in regulations, standards
and certification processes of organic products and combinations of his
scientific backbone and direct contacts with organic farmers, NGO’s,
government, private companies and traders in different continents such as
Europe, Asia and North America brought him an extensive practical experiences
and provided him a set of knowledge in organic farming at international level.
Reza is a Board Member of Iran Organic Association, Member of Technology
Innovation Platform of IFOAM, he founded the first accredited organic
inspection body company in Iran, and the first certified organic research farm
based on EU Regulation in Iran as well as IFOAM-IRAN which currently is its
director.
Prof. Dr. Raffaele Zanoli
Università Politecnica delle Marche via Brecce Bianche,
Italy
Prof. Raffaele Zanoli (MA, PhD) is Full Professor of
Agricultural Economics & Marketing at the Polytechnic University of Marche,
Italy with more than 20 years experience primarily related to the economics and
market analyses of the organic food sector. He participated to a dozen of
international projects on organic farming, mostly EU-funded, and was the
coordinator of the largest governmental-funded project on organic animal
farming in Italy (www.equizoobio.it). He is currently the coordinator of the 7th FP
project “OrganicDatanetwork”, started on January 2012. He has been expert and
consultant on organic farming for the European Commission, the Swiss Federal
Government, the Italian Government, and the FAO. He is founder and currently
president of the Italian Research Association on Organic Farming (GRAB-IT) and
Coordinator for socio-economic research in the RIRAB, the Italian Network for
Organic Farming Research.
Simona Naspetti is Associate Professor at the Università
Politecnica Marche, Italy. Teachings: Economics & Agro-food marketing,
Marketing, Industrial marketing. Research topics: organic supply chains &
consumer behaviour, quality perception (cognitive and affective response
(eye-tracking) & WTP, new product development, Novel foods and innovation,
Branding & environmental sustainability,landscape perception &
perception of ecosystem services in marine environment. Developed MECPLUS
software for the MEC analysis.
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