Presentation of the Campaign Team
Tommi Ståhlberg
Hello! I'm a 27-year old single father from Finland. I'm active in Finnish Young Greens' Federation and also in the Helsinki Greens. I'm very interested in all food matters - one of my most beloved hobbies is cooking. I can spend hours in the kitchen preparing dishes just like a swiss clock smith, well, prepares clocks. I´m also very pro slow food. I study computer sciences, though sometimes I wonder why... One can make a difference!
Contact: tommi.stahlberg@myy.helia.fi
Jolanta Skubiszewska
I work as an intern at the Federation of Young European Greens. I´ve worked in Warsaw as a Program Coordinator at the Heinrich Boell Foundation - a German political foundation affiliated with the Green Party. Besides working at the HBF, I´ve been working on crucial Green issues such as tolerance and non-discrimination for a long time. I would like to offer my experience in campaigning while gaining knowledge about GMOs. I have no experience in ecological campaigning yet but I would like to gain it. While living in Poland I really wasn´t aware of the problem of GMOs as food is still natural there. I suppose the same or a similar situation exists in most CEE countries and I would very much like to protect the status quo.
Contact: intern@fyeg.org
Miren Maialen Samper
I´m currently completing my MSc in Sustainable Development in Ireland. I´m heavily involved in local groups like the Dublin Food Coop, an organic food cooperative. I´m an active volunteer for Sustainable Ireland, where I took part in the launch of the ‘GMO free Ireland´ campaign on Earth day. I´m a campaigner and lobbyist and an editor for the first Irish Local sustainable Newspaper called the Local Planet. In 2003 I spent a year in Brazil, where I became acutely aware of the urgency of fighting for a more sustainable world, spreading the words of The World Social forum in Porto Alegre, where I participated on two occasions. I believe that globalisation in the food industry has increased to such an extent that a few corporations possess almost total control over the food supply chain: from primary source to product. This to the detriment of the consumers choice and also to many farmers´ livelihoods. I hope to raise awareness amongst citizens and local groups about issues such as: fair trade, GMO´s and organic products. I´m interested in the role of advocacy groups in communicating these messages, especially to young people.
Contact: mirenmaialen@gmail.com
Arsen Rudan
I´m a student of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Belgrade, Serbia, and in the meanwhile in November I´m also finishing my master course “Food Safety and Quality” (master thesis: Implementation of Modern Safety and Quality Concepts in Serbian Organic Food Production. Future of Organic Food Production in Serbia). These studies are financed by the EC (DG for Education and Culture). During the last two years I had the unique opportunity of being taught by several great professors from the EU and Serbia. I did a workshop for the Serbian Young Greens about GMOs, organic and conventional food. I also wrote one article recently about the same topic and it can be found on the website of Serbian Green Youth (www.zelenaomladina.org.yu). I am not a member of any political party, but I´m green in heart and soul. I was an OSCE intern (The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) in the Serbian Parliament in 2004 (Department for Agriculture). I finished two courses on biodiversity in Serbia, one course on civil society and the course “Safety in the Agro-food chain” (Ghent, Belgium). I cooperate with several Serbian NGOs on food and environmental issues.
Contact: rudan@yubc.net
Veronique Marx
I´ve just finished a MSc Nature, Society and Environmental Policy at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. I was awarded internship in 2004 at the Institute for European Environmental Policy, London and in 2002 at the European Center for Geodynamics and Seismology, Luxembourg. Most of all however, I´m absolutely enthusiastic about every issue that deals with the environment, in particular about food and agriculture. I became interested in these topics during my Geography undergraduate degree. This year in my Master Course, I´ve been able to concentrate on my particular interest in the globalisation of the food supply chain and its environmental and social consequences. I´m especially interested in the campaign because of its emphasis on young people. I believe that many of the young people of Europe are not informed well enough on the food that they consume, and therefore do not care enough. I´m able to work with a wide range of people: from dealing with some difficult students in student societies and sports teams to researchers of an environmental NGO. I have enjoyed most of my experiences as a team member and therefore like to take part in the "Tell me what I eat" campaign too. I really enjoy planning and organising within a group of people and working together on a common objective that I strongly feel committed to.
Contact: veronique.marx@cantabgold.net
Gert Boel
I´m a history student, and a member of Jong Groen!, the Flemish young greens, who are in their turn a member of the great and praiseworthy FYEG. I write a lot of articles for the Jong Groen e-magazine and my student magazine Schamper, and so I decided to modestly help the campaign by writing, correcting and lay-outing the publication materials. Also, as a historian, I have knowledge on economic relationships, and the way inequality in the world economy is consolidated (even more after attending a class on world-systems-analysis). Unfortunately, one has to realise that food may well be a vital but sparse item for some unfortunate people in this world, but for others it is merely an economic asset. And on the light-hearted side: food is just fun. And good food is big fun. Whether you´re cooking for your future partner, your present partner or former partner, a well-prepared spaghetti bolognese always adds that extra bit of spice to life that makes it all so exciting.
Contact: gert@jonggroen.be
Joke Van de Putte
I´m 24 years old, born and raised in the city of Aalst. After finishing high school, I went to university in Brussels and Berlin to study applied languages (Dutch, French, German) and I got the diploma of interpreter. Right now, I´m studying Philosophy at the University of Ghent. I am writing my thesis on what happiness is about, and am interested in how our brain functions. As the Campaign Co-ordinator of Fyeg, I like to co-operate with other Young European Greens on a common European Campaign. A Europeanwide campaign enables young people from all over Europe to share their concerns, learn from each other and work on an alternative approach of our society. Especially the topic of safe and fair food and its consequences on our health is in the main interest of young people, the future parents of Europe.
Contact: jokevandeputte@yahoo.com
Website: www.jokevandeputte.tk
