Emeritus Prof Allan Buckwell, RISE Foundation, Research Director

Emeritus Professor Allan Buckwell has been Director of RISE’s reports  on crop protection, livestock, the Common Agricultural Policy, nutrient recovery and reuse and sustainable intensification. Two thirds of his career has been as an academic agricultural economist specialising in agricultural and rural policy. This has involved his work as a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for European Environmental Policy (since 2012), fourteen years at Newcastle University and then from 1984-1999 as Professor of Agricultural Economics, Wye College University of London (which was merged into Imperial College). During this period he specialised on teaching and research into all aspects of European rural policy dealing especially with the Common Agricultural Policy, trade issues, and technology and structural change in farming and its impacts.

During 1995/6 he was seconded to the analysis and conception unit of DG Agri in the European Commission where he chaired a policy integration group who laid out a model for the evolution of the CAP. He joined the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) as Policy Director in 2000.

Since then he has been involved in debates on how to balance the CAP as a policy for Food and Environmental Security. He chaired and authored a report on Public Goods from Private Land and worked a good deal on Climate Change, the threats and opportunities this poses to rural land managers and Green House Gas accounting from land-based businesses. His key specialist subjects are CAP, agriculture and environmental land management.

Elsi Katainen, Member of the European Parliament, Vice-Chair of the Committee of Agriculture and Rural Development

Elsi Katainen is a Finnish Member of the European Parliament in Renew Europe Group on her second parliamentary term. She is member and vice-chair of the AGRI committee and member of the TRAN committee. She is a teacher of natural resources and agricultural sciences by profession and has had a dairy farm together with her family, currently run by her son.

Mrs Katainen acted as the rapporteur of CAP transitional regulation in 2020 and acts as her group’s negotiator in Biodiversity Strategy in the AGRI committee. She has worked as a rapporteur in Horizon Europe’s agri cluster and as shadow rapporteur for unfair trading practices directive in the food chain.

Before joining the European Parliament, she served as a Member in the Finnish Parliament for 11 years.

More information
Website – www.elsikatainen.fi
Twitter – @ElsiKatainen
Facebook – EKatainen
LinkedIn - elsi-katainen-73419518a

Frédéric Lambert, Director - Europe & International, Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Republic of France

Frédéric Lambert is Director - Europe & International, Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Republic of France.

Monika Nebeská, Chairwoman of the Board, Agricultural Cooperative Všestary

Chairwoman of the Board of the Agricultural Cooperative Všestary, manager and executive of a number of other companies. Member of the Board of the regional branch of the Czech Agrarian Chamber in Hradec Králové and the Association of Sugar Growers of Bohemia. Chairwoman of the Review Panel of the Association of Owners, Operators and Users of Irrigation Facilities of the Czech Republic and member of the Supervisory Board of the Vegetable Union of Bohemia and Moravia. Her name is associated primarily with the success of Všestarská cibule (Všestary Onion), registered in the EU Register of Protected Geographical Indications of Origin. Under her leadership, the company was able to react flexibly to climate change and, in addition to onions, also became the largest domestic producer of broccoli.

She holds a number of top management and social awards. She is one of the few women in the Czech Republic who have been awarded the honorary title of Lady Pro. She is often referred to as the first lady of Czech agriculture.

She supports community life and helps non-profit organizations in the region, supports the preservation of the nation's cultural heritage by financing the restoration of church buildings. It organizes the Všestary Onion Celebrations, which are attended by over 3,000 people.

She is being invited, on a regular basis, as an expert in the field of agricultural production and leadership for discussions at various forums for both professionals and the general public. She personally advocates the promotion of Czech agriculture, raising awareness of the quality of Czech agricultural production and the importance of agriculture for maintaining the landscape and developing life in the countryside.

More information
Website – www.vsestary.cz
Facebook – zdvsestary

Jeremy Wates, Secretary General, European Environmental Bureau

Jeremy Wates has served as Secretary General of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Europe’s largest network of environmental citizens’ organizations, since May 2011. The EEB brings together more than 160 environmental organisations from 36 countries, with a combined membership of some 30 million environmentally concerned citizens.

Before taking up his present post, Jeremy worked from 1999 to 2010 as Secretary to the Aarhus Convention with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, having previously led the NGO campaign for such a treaty and then coordinated the input from civil society organizations into the Aarhus negotiations.

In the 1980s, Jeremy founded the Irish environmental organization Earthwatch and led the organization for more than a decade. During this period, he combined his environmental advocacy work with small-scale organic farming in West Cork.

Jeremy holds an MA Honours Degree in Philosophy and Social & Political Sciences from Cambridge University, UK. In 2011, he was awarded the David Brower Lifetime Achievement Award.

More information
Website – www.eeb.org
Twitter – @Green_Europe
Facebook – EuropeanEnvironmentalBureau
LinkedIn - european-environmental-bureau

Janusz Wojciechowski, Commissioner for Agriculture, European Commission

Member of the European Commission since 1 December 2019, responsible for Agriculture, he is a lawyer and an attorney.

Commissioner Wojciechowski’s responsibilities include supporting negotiations on the future of the CAP, developing a long-term vision for rural areas and developing an action plan for organic farming.

Commissioner Wojciechowski grew up on a farm in rural Rawa Mazowiecka, Łódzkie region in central Poland. He had started his professional career as a judge at different levels up to being a judge of the Supreme Court of Poland. Then he held very significant post of the President of the Supreme Audit Office of Poland (1995-2001).

From 2001 Commissioner Wojciechowski represented Łódzkie constituency as a Member and also Vice-marshal of the Parliament of the Republic of Poland - Sejm (2001-2004) and from June 2004 till May 2016 as a Member of the European Parliament of 3 terms. As MEP he was Member of the European Parliament's Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals in the European Parliament since his 1st term in 2004; since 2014 till 2016 its President.
From May 2016 to November 2019 he was the Member of the European Court of Auditors, representing Poland.

More information
Website – www.ec.europa.eu
Twitter – @jwojc

Charlotte Smith, Journalist and broadcaster

Charlotte smith is a British TV and radio presenter who has been covering food, Farming and rural affairs for more than two decades.

Mark Titterington, Senior Adviser, Strategy & Partnerships, Forum for the Future of Agriculture

Mark has enjoyed a long career in the agri-food sector having previously worked at the United Nations and for Syngenta where he held a number of senior leadership positions in corporate affairs and business sustainability in the EAME region and globally. After leaving Syngenta in 2017, Mark became Chief Executive of EngineeringUK, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to inspiring and nurturing STEM skills in young people.

Mark is a co-founder and senior adviser to the Forum for the Future of Agriculture and a Senior Fellow at the Transatlantic Policy Network. He is also the current Head of Marketing and Public Affairs for Indigo Agriculture Europe GmbH.