Panel discussion

Professor Regina Birner is the Chair of Social and Institutional Change in Agricultural Development at the Hans-Ruthenberg-Institute of the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany.  Her research focuses on policies, governance and institutions that are essential for sustainable agricultural development and food security in the Global South. She has more than 25 years of empirical research experience in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Her publications appeared in journals such as Food Policy, Global Food Security and World Development. She has been consulting with international organizations, including the FAO and the World Bank. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board on Agricultural and Food Policy of the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and a member of the Bioeconomy Council of Germany’s federal government. Regina Birner holds a PhD in Socio-Economics of Agricultural Development from the University of Göttingen, Germany.

Carsten Brühl is an ecologist working in the field of ecotoxicology for more than 20 years. In his research he and his team at the Institute for Environmental Sciences Landau at the RPTU especially address the impact of pesticides on terrestrial biodiversity. He is familiar with standard pesticide testing and its implementation in risk assessment for the regulation of pesticides in the EU and serves in various advisory panels on national and EU level. His work on plants, insects, amphibians and bats showed a lack of protection and was included in scientific opinions to address changes in the regulatory system. Current research is focusing on the characterization of pesticide mixtures in the environment, including soil in agricultural fields, insects in nature conservation areas and entire landscapes.

Since Dec. 2022: Research Assistant Department of Social Transformation and Agriculture, University of Hohenheim

Since 2021: Studies in the Master program Environmental Protection and Agricultural Food Production, University of Hohenheim

Nov. 2021 – Dec. 2022: Research Assistant in the project TASTINO, Department of Plant Science, University of Hohenheim

Oct. 2019 – March 2020: Internship Environmental Protection and Ecological Farming, India

2017 – 2021: Studies in Nutritional Science, Justus-Liebig University of Gießen

2016-2017: Weltwärts international year, Philippines

Julia Köbele, Sustainability expert; Passion for Sustainability and Circular Economy.
Expert in sustainable agriculture with more than 18 years of experience in policy and business.
With Bayer CropScience since 2012 in different positions, today with Bayer CropScience Germany and responsible for market development in sustainability and Bayer ForwardFarming; she works with a network of farmers across Germany to enhance sustainability in farm operations with focus on biodiversity, soil health and water protection.

Before:
2009-2012 Advisor at European Commission, Directorate General for Agriculture2005-2009 Advisor to Member of European Parliament
2000-2005 Studied communications and economics at the University of Hohenheim.
Hobbies: sports in the mountains (I live close to the Alps), family (2 kids), sustainability education & projects with local community&kids, wild bees, gardening, Yoga, photography

Michael Freiherr von Gemmingen, manager and shareholder of Kraichgauer Güterverwaltungen, born in 1971, studied International Business Administration in Paris and took over the family-owned farm in 1993. In the last 30 years, the area farmed has tripled offering multiple opportunities to pioneer sustainability on a bigger scale. Kraichgauer Güterverwaltungen has become a leading farm by diversifying crops, innovation through digital farming practices, carbon sequestration and establishing beetle banks. For the future, Michael von Gemmingen plans to focus on combining the harvesting of renewable energies with the production of food.

Josef (Sepp) works at the UFZ – Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Halle/Germany, where he heads the Department of Conservation Biology and Social-Ecological Systems. He holds a PhD in agriculture, based on agro-ecological research on biocontrol in tropical irrigated rice systems and is professor of ecology at the Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg.

He has extensive science-policy-experience, e.g. as co-chair of the Global Assessment of IPBES from 2016 to 2019 and Coordinating Lead Author of the 5th Assessment Report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – IPCC. He also is co-author of the IPBES-IPCC co-sponsored workshop report on biodiversity and climate change, published in 2021. Since July 2020 he is member of the “German Advisory Council on the Environment” of the German government. Since Juli 2022 he is member of the MEP (Multidisciplinary Expert Panels) of IPBES, elected by the community of WEOG countries (Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand).

His research focusses on the interface of land use, climate and biological diversity. He is highly cited researcher in Web of Science. He was and is coordinating major national and international inter- and transdisciplinary research projects.