How COVID-19 accelerates change in safe and secure food systems

Tom Freyberg is the founder and director of Atlantean Media. An award-winning environmental journalist, he has had articles and comments published in The Times, The Guardian, CNN, the Grocer magazine and a Swedish institute publication, WaterFront. After graduating from Exeter University with a BA (Hons) in English, he completed his journalism training with PMA in London. After spending five years working on renewable energy, recycling and waste titles, he then moved into the international water market as chief editor of Water & Wastewater International (WWi) magazine. Travelling the globe and reporting on projects from Latin America, to the Middle East and South East Asia, this role really opened his eyes to the water challenges and available solutions available around the world. During this time he covered high profile interviews, including Singapore Environment Minister, Vivian Balakrishnan and Robert F. Kennedy Jnr, as well as multiple CEOs. In the summer of 2018, he launched Atlantean Media, a global digital content creation company serving the environmental engineering industries, specifically water. The company was born out of a need to bring engineering-based content to life. Through Atlantean Tom represents Aquatech Global Events as content director and also serves as the content strategist for new feature-length documentary, Brave Blue World, featuring Matt Damon and Jaden Smith.

Mariska Dreschler is Director Horticulture at GreenTech. She is responsible for the worldwide management, design, roll-out and branding of the GreenTech titles within the Horticulture domain: GreenTech Amsterdam and Summit, GreenTech Americas and GreenTech.nl (online platform). In addition to that for business development, building and maintaining the client relationships networks at home (NL) and abroad, innovation in existing concepts and the development of new business she is a connector, always focused on the highest achievable in quality and conversion. Bringing business together supply and demand together by organizing relevant connections and (physical) platforms, supported by online activities, is her passion. Ms. Dreschler loves to pioneer and explore new business models together with her team like to take the pioneering role in this. A sustainable approach and a commercially positive result are her driving force. GreenTech is a global meeting platform for all horticultural technology professionals and all about sustainable crop optimization. GreenTech focuses on the early stages of the horticultural chain and the current issues growers face. The domain has existed since 2013 and has grown from 298 exhibitors and 8,153 visitors to resp. 477 and 12,489 professionals from 114 countries in 2019.

Meiny Prins is CEO and co-owner of Priva. She devotes a great part of her life to promoting sustainability, innovation and internationalization. Meiny is a much sought-after authority in this field. With her clear, inspirational message on sustainability, she bridges the gap between companies, governments and sectors. Meiny Prins is member of the Committee for Entrepreneurship and Finance in The Netherlands. In her position of CEO, she was proclaimed Business Woman of the Year. In 2009, Priva was awarded with the first CleanTech Star of WWF (World Wildlife Fund). Meiny is an honored alumnus of the Erasmus University and she was acknowledged as an Influential Leader for sustainability by AACSB International in 2015. Meiny emphasizes that an integrated approach is the key to creating a Sustainable Urban Delta, starting with integrating green belts (where food for the city is produced) into urbanized areas. With her ideas on how to deal with food production and urbanization, she explains that inhabitants of rapidly growing metropolises would not only have access to healthy and safe food; if the green belt (or urban growth boundary) and food production are included as an integral part of major urban developments, they would also be able to enjoy a living and working environment with clean air, clean energy and safe drinking water. Local food production will be an inspiring and important part of the circular economy. To inspire city governments, mayors, architects, city planners, entrepreneurs and individuals for re-thinking the development of cities, by creating space for food production for the people of the city, Meiny founded the Sustainable Urban Delta Foundation. The foundation aims to become a community where those who seek to share ideas and specific needs for sustainable initiatives connect. She believes that this will create new opportunities on a social, ecological and economic level, solving many of today’s environmental problems caused by food production.

Rob Baan (Haarlem, 1956) has been the owner of Koppert Cress, a microgreens company, since 2002. “We come up with the best flavors by exploring nature and cultures of various countries.” These flavors are used by the world’s leading restaurants. Koppert Cress is a successful company that does everything it can to continuously innovate. The greenhouses in the Westland are therefore among the most modern and most sustainable constructions in global horticulture. Before working on cress, Rob Baan worked as a horticultural all-rounder in over 70 countries around the world. What drives Rob is finding and comprehending the essence of the matter, wanting to understand a culture and looking for solutions. He now uses his accumulated knowledge to explain the logic behind fresh food to the consumer as the best and most natural source of health. His fresh and insightful look at the food industry makes him a unique and valuable expert in the field of food and health.