Mbuli Charles Boliko

Director of FAO Liaison Office in Japan

(Message from FAO Liaison office in Japan) “The FAO Liaison Office in Japan” was established in 1997 and is based in Yokohama. It undertakes a series of activities aimed at facilitating information exchange, fostering mutual understanding and promoting collaboration between FAO and the people of Japan on issues pertaining to food and nutrition security around the world. As such, the office constantly interacts with key ministries, national and international agencies, NGOs, schools, universities and research centers, private companies and the public at large. For many years, the Government of Japan has been one of the top contributors to the regular budget of FAO, thereby greatly supporting international efforts to increase food production and raise levels of nutrition in developing countries, especially in rural areas, and to strengthen the resilience of livelihoods to threats and crises. This is a fundamental endeavor to eradicate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition from the surface of the earth, where an unacceptable 795 million people still cannot eat enough to live a decent life and properly contribute to development.

Liu Guangwei

Chinese Master Chef, founder of Eatology, president of the World Eatology Forum, dean of the Beijing Eatology Research Institute.

Liu Guangwei, Chinese Master Chef, founder of Eatology, president of the World Eatology Forum, dean of the Beijing Eatology Research Institute. In 2013, the Introduction to Eatology was published, and the basic framework of the human eatology science system was proposed. In 2017, he founded the World Eatology Forum which was successively held in Beijing, China in 2018 and Osaka, Japan in 2019. In 2018, he published Eatology, proposed the 3-32 system of the eatology discipline, and the ten eating-related problems of the 21st century. In 2019, he published the Eatology Terminology, Eatology (English version), and Eatology (Japanese version).

Arnold Toynbee

Historian, Philosopher of History

Arnold Joseph Toynbee, was a British historian, philosopher of history, author of numerous books and research professor of international history at the London School of Economics and King's College in the University of London. Toynbee in the 1918–1950 period was a leading specialist on international affairs. He is best known for his 12-volume A Study of History (1934–1961). With his prodigious output of papers, articles, speeches and presentations, and numerous books translated into many languages, Toynbee was a widely read and discussed scholar in the 1940s and 1950s. However, by the 1960s his magnum opus had fallen out of favor among mainstream historians and his vast readership had faded.

David Christian

Historian

David Christian, a historian and scholar of Russian history, has become notable for teaching and promoting the emerging discipline of Big History. In 1989 he began teaching the first course on the topic, examining history from the Big Bang to the present using a multidisciplinary approach with the assistance of scholars in diverse specializations from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Big History frames human history in terms of cosmic, geological, and biological history. Christian is credited with coining the term Big History and he serves as president of the International Big History Association. Christian's best-selling Teaching Company course titled Big History caught the attention of philanthropist Bill Gates, who is personally funding Christian's efforts to develop a program to bring the course to secondary-school students worldwide.

Donella Meadows

Environmental Scientist, Teacher, and Writer

Donella Meadows was a pioneering American environmental scientist, teacher, and writer. She is best known as lead author of the influential book The Limits to Growth and Thinking in Systems: a Primer. Born in Elgin, Illinois, Meadows was educated in science, receiving a B.A. in chemistry from Carleton College in 1963 and a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard in 1968. After a yearlong trip from England to Sri Lanka and back, she became a research fellow at MIT, as a member of a team in the department created by Jay Forrester, the inventor of system dynamics as well as the principle of magnetic data storage for computers. She taught at Dartmouth College for 29 years, beginning in 1972. She died in 2001 of a bacterial infection.

Franklin Hiram King

Agricultural Scientist

Franklin Hiram King was an American agricultural scientist who was born on a farm near Whitewater, Wisconsin, attended country schools, and received his professional training first at Whitewater State Normal School, graduating in 1872, and then at Cornell University. King is now best remembered for his first-hand account of traditional agricultural practices in Asia, now regarded as an organic farming classic text. King served as a professor of agricultural physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1888 until 1902. Interested in a wide range of subjects throughout his career, King made major contributions during these years in research and teaching that dealt with applications of physics to agriculture. Most attention was given to soil physics, for example, water-holding capacities of soils, moisture requirements of plants, aeration, movement of water in soils, movement of groundwater, the drafts of plows, and the lifting power of windmills; he also began studies of soil fertility. The impact of his career was greatest in the field of soil science. He has been called the father of soil physics in the United States. He is most popularly known for designing the cylindrical storage silo, which reduces the occurrence of spoilage in the silage. Some have speculated that Frank Lloyd Wright's design of the Guggenheim Museum was influenced by King's designs. King is commemorated at the University of Wisconsin–Madison by King Hall, so renamed in 1934, which is the same Agricultural Physics Hall in which he worked during his tenure there and which now houses part of the Department of Soil Science (formed by the 1904 reorganization of King's original department into the 'Soils Department' and the 'Agricultural Engineering Department'), and by the F. H. King Students for Sustainable Agriculture, a student organization that grows various crops that are given away to community residents to raise awareness of sustainable farming and gardening.

Jeremy Rifkin

Economic and Social Theorist, Writer, Public Speaker, Political Advisor, and Activist

Jeremy Rifkin is the author of 20 books about the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment. His most recent books include The Zero Marginal Cost Society (2014), The Third Industrial Revolution(2011), The Empathic Civilization (2010), and The European Dream (2004). Rifkin is the principal architect of the Third Industrial Revolution long-term economic sustainability plan to address the triple challenge of the global economic crisis, energy security, and climate change. The Third Industrial Revolution was formally endorsed by the European Parliament in 2007 and is now being implemented by various agencies within the European Commission. The Huffington Post reported from Beijing in October 2015 that "Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has not only read Jeremy Rifkin's book, The Third Industrial Revolution, but taken it to heart", he and his colleagues having incorporated ideas from this book into the core of the country's thirteenth Five-Year Plan. According to EurActiv, "Jeremy Rifkin is an American economist and author whose best-selling Third Industrial Revolution arguably provided the blueprint for Germany's transition to a low-carbon economy, and China's strategic acceptance of climate policy."

Jerry Bentley

An American Academic and Professor of World History

Jerry Harrell Bentley was an American academic and professor of world history. He was a founding editor of the Journal of World History since 1990. He wrote on the cultural history of early modern Europe and on cross-cultural interactions in world history. He was one of the cited experts in Annenberg Media's 2004 series of educational videos that are broadcast by satellite on the Annenberg Channel. Bentley was born in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. He attended Brainerd High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and then went on to the University of Tennessee where he obtained a bachelor's degree in 1971, and then his Masters (1974) and PhD (1976) from the University of Minnesota. Following this he began working as an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii in 1976.[citation needed] He rose to Associate Professor in 1982, and full professor in 1987. In 1990 he was the founding editor of the Journal of World History, with Elton Daniel and Daniel Kwok as editorial board members, and Herbert F. Ziegler as the book review editor. The University released a series of monographs on world history, Perspectives on the Global Past, and then became the headquarters for the World History Association. Bentley and Ziegler were also co-authors of the college-level world history textbook Traditions and Encounters which as of 2016 is in its 6th edition. In 2002, Bentley became the Director at the Center for World History at the University of Hawaii

Lester R. Brown

Environmental Analyst

Lester Russel Brown is a United States environmental analyst, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, and founder and former president of the Earth Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C. BBC Radio commentator Peter Day referred to him as "one of the great pioneer environmentalists." Brown is the author or co-author of over 50 books on global environmental issues and his works have been translated into more than forty languages. His most recent book is The Great Transition: Shifting from Fossil Fuels to Solar and Wind Energy (2015), in which he explains that the global economy is now undergoing a transition from fossil and nuclear energy to clean power from solar, wind, and other renewable sources. His previous book was Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity (2012). Brown emphasizes the geopolitical effects of fast-rising grain prices, noting that "the biggest threat to global stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries," and one that could "bring down civilization." In Foreign Policy magazine, he describes how the "new geopolitics of food" has, in 2011, already begun to contribute to revolutions and upheaval in various countries. The recipient of 26 honorary degrees and a MacArthur Fellowship, Brown has been described by the Washington Post as "one of the world's most influential thinkers." As early as 1978, in his book The Twenty-Ninth Day, he was already warning of "the various dangers arising out of our manhandling of nature...by overfishing the oceans, stripping the forests, turning land into desert." In 1986, the Library of Congress requested his personal papers noting that his writings "have already strongly affected thinking about problems of world population and resources," while president Bill Clinton has suggested that "we should all heed his advice." In 2003 he was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto. In the mid-1970s, Brown helped pioneer the concept of sustainable development, during a career that started with farming. Since then, he has been the recipient of many prizes and awards, including, the 1987 United Nations Environment Prize, the 1989 World Wide Fund for Nature Gold Medal, and the 1994 Blue Planet Prize for his "contributions to solving global environmental problems." In 1995, Marquis Who's Who selected Brown as one of its "50 Great Americans." He was recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Italy and was appointed an honorary professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He lives in Washington, D.C. and retired in June 2015.

Mark Kurlansky

Journalist and Writer of General Interest Non-fiction

Mark Kurlansky has written a number of books of fiction and non-fiction. His 1997 book, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World (1997), was an international bestseller and was translated into more than 15 languages. His book Nonviolence: Twenty-five Lessons From the History of a Dangerous Idea (2006) was the non-fiction winner of the 2007 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Kurlansky was born in Hartford, Connecticut on December 7, 1948. He attended Butler University, where he earned a BA in 1970. From 1976 to 1991 he worked as a correspondent in Western Europe for the Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and eventually the Paris-based International Herald Tribune. He moved to Mexico in 1982, where he continued to practice journalism. In 2007 he was named the Baruch College Harman writer-in-residence. Kurlansky wrote his first book, A Continent of Islands, in 1992 and went on to write several more throughout the 1990s. His 1997 book Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World was an international bestseller and was translated into more than 15 languages. His work and contribution to Basque identity and culture was recognized in 2001 when the Society of Basque Studies in America named him to the Basque Hall of Fame. That same year, he was awarded an honorary ambassadorship from the Basque government.

Martín Caparrós

Writer

Martín Caparrós is a writer. Caparrós begun professional writing at age sixteen, shortly after graduating from high school at the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires. His first professional job in journalism was with the now defunct daily Noticias. In 1976, Caparrós fled to exile following the military coup led by General Jorge Rafael Videla. In Paris, he obtained a degree in history at the Sorbonne, University of Paris. Caparrós would later relocate to Madrid, Spain. During the early 1980s, he resettled to Buenos Aires and since then he has produced a vast body of work including fiction and nonfiction alike.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Idealist Philosopher and Jesuit Priest

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a French idealist philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of Peking Man. He conceived the vitalist idea of the Omega Point (a maximum level of complexity and consciousness towards which he believed the universe was evolving), and he developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of noosphere. Although a monitum was issued in regard to some of Teilhard's ideas, he has been posthumously praised by Pope Benedict XVI and other eminent Catholic figures, and his theological teachings were cited by Pope Francis in the 2015 encyclical, Laudato si'. The response to his writings by evolutionary biologists has been, with some exceptions, decidedly negative.

Rachel Carson

Marine Biologist, Author

Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist, author, and conservationist whose book Silent Spring and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement. Carson began her career as an aquatic biologist in the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, and became a full-time nature writer in the 1950s. Her widely praised 1951 bestseller The Sea Around Us won her a U.S. National Book Award, recognition as a gifted writer, and financial security. Her next book, The Edge of the Sea, and the reissued version of her first book, Under the Sea Wind, were also bestsellers. This sea trilogy explores the whole of ocean life from the shores to the depths. Late in the 1950s, Carson turned her attention to conservation, especially some problems that she believed were caused by synthetic pesticides. The result was the book Silent Spring (1962), which brought environmental concerns to an unprecedented share of the American people. Although Silent Spring was met with fierce opposition by chemical companies, it spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy, which led to a nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides. It also inspired a grassroots environmental movement that led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Carson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter.

Richard Fortey

Palaeontologist, Natural Historian, Writer and Television Presenter

Richard Fortey is a British palaeontologist, natural historian, writer and television presenter, who served as President of the Geological Society of London for its bicentennial year of 2007; he is married and has four children. Fortey has had a long career as a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London;[2] his research interests include above all, trilobites: at the age of 14, he discovered his first trilobite, sparking a passionate interest that later became a career. He has named numerous trilobite species and still continues his research despite having retired from the Museum. He studies trilobites and graptolites, especially those from the Ordovician and their systematics, evolution and modes of life; he is also involved in research on Ordovician palaeogeography and correlation; arthropod evolution, especially the origin of major groups and the relationships between divergence times, as revealed by molecular evidence and the fossil record. His scientific output includes over 250 papers on trilobites, Ordovician stratigraphy and palaeogeography. He is the author of popular science books on a range of subjects including geology, palaeontology, evolution and natural history. Since 2012, he has also been a television presenter appearing on BBC Four presenting natural history programmes; was Collier Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Technology at the Institute of Advanced Studies in the University of Bristol 2002 and Visiting Professor of Palaeobiology at Oxford University 1999-2009.

Takeo Koizumi

Agriculturist

Born in 1943, his family ran a sake brewery in Fukushima Prefecture. His father was a gourmet while his mother had a love of books. Majoring in zymology at the Tokyo University of Agriculture, he was appointed professor at the age of 39, the youngest in the history of the university. A witty and prolific writer, he has published over 100 books. In addition to being an honorary professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture, he is guest professor at several other universities.(Retrieved from: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/food/chef/87.html )

William Cecil Dampier

Scientist, Agriculturist, and Science Historian

Sir William Cecil Dampier was a British scientist, agriculturist, and science historian who developed a method of extracting lactose (milk sugar) from whey. He was born in London, the son of Charles Langley and Mary Whetham and the grandson of Sir Charles Whetham, a former Lord Mayor of London. In 1886, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge and in 1889 commenced his varied researches in the Cavendish Laboratory. In 1891 was elected a Fellow of Trinity. In June 1901 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. His candidacy citation read: "Lecturer in Physics. Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1904 he published the first of his broader works on science and its history, The Recent Development of Physical Science. This was followed in 1929 by his frequently reprinted and translated A History of Science, and its Relations with Philosophy and Religion. A Shorter History of Science. 1944,1945. From 1931 to 1935 he served as the first secretary of the Agricultural Research Council. He was knighted in 1931 for public service to agriculture.