iPOPY
Anne-Kristin Løes - Bioforsk Organic Food and Farming
Tel: +47 40 47 99 62
Anne-Kristin spent her childhood at a farm in South-eastern Norway , and studied soil science at the Agricultural University (since 2005: UMB ). Employed with Bioforsk Organic (until 2006, Norwegian Centre for Organic Agriculture) since 1988, she has worked for several years with farm case studies, farmers’ motivation for organic agriculture and a range of soil fertility projects. Her PhD thesis was on plant nutrition, especially genetic variation in nutrient uptake in Norwegian cereals varieties. Anne-Kristin will coordinate ( WP1 ) the iPOPY project, draw final conclusions and manage the dissemination of project results. Her broad experience in organic food and agriculture, and a good network in the organic movement will be useful to coordinate this project.
Benjamin Nölting - Technical University Berlin
Tel: + 030 314 26 368
Benjamin is a political scientist, working at the Centre for technology and society at TUB where most projects focus on the relations between technology and social science. The last years, many of these projects have been about sustainable development. For instance, one project analysed the contribution from organic agriculture and food industry in the region of Berlin und Brandenburg to sustainable development and “regional wealth” in the region. In iPOPY, Benjamin will be most active in WP1 and WP2 , and he is responsible for developing an analytical framework to analyse and compare cases and conditions in the iPOPY countries (DK, FI, IT, NO). Benjamin would like public catering food to add to people’s quality of life, which is currently (at least in Germany ) not the case.
Tel: +4572347424, mobile: +45 25 38 43 66
Bent took his Master degree in food science. For several years he studied the processes of organisational changes in commercial kitchens caused by implementation of new policies such as to take more regard to the environment, use more organic food etc. Hence, his PhD is in organisational science. Organic school meal schemes are now increasingly important for Bent’s work, in iPOPY as well as other projects. Together with Niels and Thorkild, Bent has been active in the Nordic “Healthcat” network, where sustainable catering was in focus. The idea of iPOPY was a result of the work and contacts established through Healthcat. Bent will lead the iPOPY WP5 , where changes in eating habits linked to the introduction of organic food in schools will be studied. Bent is engaged in how much more than the food itself can be focused by an organic school meal, such as health aspects, how to grow and prepare the food etc. He wants school meals to become embedded in a broader context than just the meal itself. Public food serving is increasing, and young people should develop sustainable and healthy “food citizenships”. The role of public food procurement to achieve such citizenships should not be underestimated.
Carola Strassner - University of Applied Sciences Muenster
Tel: + 0251 83 65415
Carola was born in South-Africa, and moved to Germany in 1991. After completing a PhD in Nutritional Science and working for a dietetics company she joined OeGS Consultancy in Frankfurt as a managing partner, providing service to kitchen operations converting to organic food. Her concept is to bring caterers and suppliers in contact, and to increase the share of organic food in the growing out-of-home sector. Since September 1, 2007 she holds a 5-year position as professor at the UAS Muenster , funded by several commercial companies and foundations. The UAS will offer a master study in sustainable nutrition from 2008 onwards. Carola is in charge of the international Organic Out-of-home (OOOH!) network, which has its annual meetings during the BioFach Trade Fair in Nuremberg.
Chen He grew up in China and she took her bachelor degree on food science and engineering at Shanghai Fisheries University, meanwhile she worked a lot as intern in Rhodia (China) Co., Ltd. on different laboratories to learn the basic information and technique on how to analyse and develop new products. Afterwards she studied one year of food technology at KUL (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) in Belgium. she moved to Denmark in 2006 and completed her master degree in food technology at DTU (Danish Technical University) in 2008. In iPOPY, Chen is glad to participate in WP5, to study how public organic food procurement (POP) change eating patterns among youth through school as a setting.
Gun M. Roos - Norwegian institute for consumer’s research (SIFO)
Originally coming from the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland , Gun got her PhD in Kentucky , USA , with a study of 10-year-old children’s food culture. In her research she combines a scientific background in nutrition with social sciences, mainly anthropology, to show that eating is much more than satisfying hunger and keeping healthy! Moving eastwards again, Gun stayed a year in Scotland to work on a project on nutrition policies in the Nordic countries. At the Finnish National Public Health Institute she participated in a European project on inequalities in food intake before moving to Oslo in 1999 to work at SIFO. In iPOPY, Gun will lead WP4 and participate in WP5 . She is keen to study how changes in everyday life (e.g. serving fresh vegetables at school) may influence your personal habits, and she looks forward to the possibility iPOPY implies to learn more about organic food and agriculture.
Lena Lie Nymoen - Bioforsk Organic Food and Farming
Tel: +47 404 81 628
Lena is a public health nutritionist, educated at the University of Oslo. Her main interest is sustainable nutrition and healthy food to young people. Lena has been working at Bioforsk since 2008. In iPOPY, Lena is the editor of the newsletter and the web page.
Liv Solemdal - Bioforsk Organic Food and Farming
Originally from Molde, close to Tingvoll, Liv studied soil science at the Agricultural University of Norway (now UMB) before she went to Tingvoll to become a farmer at the recently established Norwegian Centre for Ecolological Agriculture (now: Bioforsk Organic). After several years of practical work, she took up her scientific career again in various developmental projects. Introducing organic food in commercial kitchens has been a main field, and recently she completed a project which has changed the consumption at the kitchen of the university hospital in Trondheim, Norway to use 30 % organic food, mainly locally produced (link). This conversion required changes in many stages from the farmers’ fields to the patients’ plates, and many lessons were learned. Liv will participate in iPOPY by providing contact to Norwegian cases.
Matthias Koesling - Bioforsk Organic Food and Farming
Tel:+47 404 81 041
Matthias grew up on a mixed farm in Germany with dairy cows, slaughter pigs, grain and vegetable production, studied agricultural economics and social sciences in Kiel , and moved to Norway in 1994. He was working on different farms and as an advisor for organic agriculture. Since 2000 he has been a researcher at Bioforsk Organic (former Norwegian Centre for Organic Agriculture), involved especially in catering projects and studies of the motivations and risk considerations among organic farmers. In iPOPY, Matthias is responsible for project databases and the team room at www.kunnskapnettverk.no . He also collects information about Norwegian conditions to the project WPs, and keeps the contact to Norwegian iPOPY cases. Matthias likes the complex challenge working with supply chains, and he thinks it is crucial to motivate young people for organic food as they are the future major consumers.
Minna Mikkola - University of Helsinki
Minnas background is in microbiology, chemistry, environmental protection, food hygiene and pedagogics. She has taught food hygiene and environmental protection in vocational schools and polytechnics (universities of applied sciences) as well as collaborated with catering industry in hygiene training. Minna has participated in EU projects on food hygiene and in national projects developing food system localisation and learning as a means to build more sustainable food supply chains. She has participated in Healthcat, a Nordic network where the initiative to iPOPY was first taken. Minna also has worked as a university educational developer and participated in evaluations of teaching and learning on faculty and program level. This has given her a strong interest in environment, sustainability and organic food education. Minna is very concerned about the actors of the food system and their perceptions about the occupational environment; there are heavy regulations and economic pressures impacting all actors along the food supply chains. How can the catering sector re-orientate itself into a more sustainable direction? Can actors learn to know each other better and start to cooperate? In iPOPY, Minna will mainly participate in WP4 to study how young consumers perceive the organic food they are served and how they feel themselves connected with the idea and practice of sustainability.
Natale Marcomini - ProBER
Natale is the vice president of ProBER, an organisation for organic producers in Emilia Romagna (ER), Italy . He works in Bologna , which is the capital of ER. ER is the most important agricultural district of Italy, and 2700 organic producers manage ca 60000 ha organic farmland there. ProBER manages a large EU-funded project, BioBenessere(link), where canteens are introduced to organic food. Italy is a good producer of organic food, but mostly for export. Italians are not good consumers of organic food. Natale wants to change this! A recent law, stating that Italian school meals shall be produces mostly from local and organic food, will be an important contribution to achieve more organic consumption in Italy, where ca 1.4 million of school meals are served every day. In Italy , only few researchers have been engaged in organic food and farming so far, and Natale is pleased to participate in iPOPY and learn about organic food in other countries. His main task in iPOPY will be to participate in the work in WP3 .
Niels Heine Kristensen - Technical University of Denmark
Niels is associate professor at DTU Management and he is an engineering scientist from the Technical University of Denmark. He took his PhD in socio-technology from the Dep. of Technology and Society. He is a coordinator of the departments master of Environmental Management, and since 2003 he has continuously been responsible for the development and implementation of the DTU Master in Food production, Innovation and Management that is recognized internationally. He is currently engaged with developing a new executive master in Food, Health and Change-management. Niels has conducted a number of national and international research projects. He is currently serving as an expert and consultant to a number of boards and in advisory teams to Danish Ministries (Agriculture, Food and Fisheries; Environment; Industry), Danish Board of Technology (adviser for the Danish Parliament), the EU Commission, Non-Governmental organisations, regional and local bodies and companies. Niels is conducting the research in WP2 on policies processes and networks in relation to the transition to public organic procurement for youth.
Roberto Spigarolo - University of Milano
Roberto is employed at the University of Milano as a professor in crop science, but he is also a member of several boards of relevance for iPOPY, and he has been an advisor for the food chain organisation HoReCa (hotels, restaurants, catering) for more than 20 years. He has been active in a successful project called “The taste of quality at school”, bringing the share of organic ingredients in the school meals in Milano, Cesena and Genova from 0 to 80% within two years. Roberto will lead the iPOPY WP3, where bottlenecks along food supply chains for important products will be analysed, and certification issues discussed.
Thorkild Nielsen - Technical University of Denmark
Tel: +45 45 25 60 22
Thorkild is M.Sc. in Geography and researcher at Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Management, the Department’s section for Innovation and Sustainability. Since 1990 most of his work has focused on strategies and policies for sustainable food systems. His main research areas are: Food Policy, Food Ethics, Sustainable Food Production, Technology Assessment. Besides his research at the University, he is an advisor to Danish municipalities and ministries but also the EU Commission and NGO’s. His latest work has focused on three arrears: 1) public procurement as a policy tool, 2) development of the concept of “Ethical Traceability” and finally 3) management systems influence on innovation e.g. food safety systems, environmental management etc.