Virginia Enssle

Project and Policy officer, Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO)
Virginia Enssle, originally from Chile, graduated and worked as an International Trade and Commercial Law Lawyer in Chile. Later on, Virginia obtained a master’s degree in Public International Law from the University of Groningen; developing research on International Investment Law and margin of manoeuvre for countries in the Global South. Currently, Virginia focuses her advocacy work on EU trade policy and agri-food issues; pushing for promotion of EU policies that promote Fair Trade values and practices and that enable a global fair ecological transition. Virginia has past experience in human rights and migrants and refugees. Virginia serves as member representing FTAO in several international trade and agri-food supply chains CSOs. Virginia is Project and Policy Officer at FTAO since 2020, a Joint Fair Trade movement political advocacy initiative, based in Brussels.

Galina Hale

Professor of Economics at UC Santa Cruz and co-founding member of Food System Innovations (FSI)

Galina Hale  is a Professor of Economics at UC Santa Cruz. She served as a Research Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and an assistant professor in the economics department of Yale University. Galina’s research interests lie in three main areas: understanding patterns of international capital flows, stability of the financial system, and the nexus between ESG sustainability goals and financial system.  Galina has published her work in highly rated economics and finance journals.  Galina is a director of the CEBRA’s IFM program and a co-director of the UCSC Center for Analytical Finance (CAFIN).   Galina has been recently working on ways economists can inform policymakers on how to make the food system more sustainable. She serves on editorial boards of a number of Economics journals and on multiple boards and committees in animal welfare and animal agriculture space.  

Peter Midmore

Professor of Economics (Emeritus), Aberystwyth University, Business School

Peter Midmore has practised as an agricultural economist for 39 years, originally working on economic impact studies using input-output analysis, but in recent years using qualitative and mixed method styles of inquiry. He has performed advisory roles and undertaken project work for a range of national and international authorities, including the Welsh and Scottish Governments, the UK Government, EU, and OECD. His experience is international in scope, including Africa, Asia, and Europe. Recent project and academic work focused on the impact of agricultural science and, latterly, the resilience of farms and farming systems. He was President of the Agricultural Economics Society from 2017-18, and continues to play an active role in this and other learned societies. 

Shefali Sharma

Director, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)
Shefali Sharma is the director of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) European office. From the global production of feed grains to meat processing and retail, her current work and publications focus on the economic, social and environmental impacts of the global meat and dairy industries. She continues to examine how international trade rules and global governance on food security and climate intersect with the sector. Shefali established IATP’s Geneva office in 2000 and led its Trade Information Project for several years. She has worked with and consulted for several other civil society organizations, such as the Malaysia-based Third World Network, as the South Asia coordinator of the Bank Information Center, based in Delhi, and ActionAid International. She has a MPhil from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Sussex and a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from the College of William and Mary.

Isabelle Vagneron

Senior Economist at Agricultural Research and International Cooperation Organization (CIRAD)
Isabelle Vagneron is a senior economist at the French agricultural research and international cooperation organization working for the sustainable development of tropical and Mediterranean regions (CIRAD). Isabelle Vagneron holds a PhD in Development Economics. Her past research focuses on the elaboration, implementation and impacts of sustainability standards in developing countries. From 2011 to 2020 she was based in the Lao PDR, where she studied, in collaboration with Laotian counterparts, the development of organic agriculture (e.g., the institutionalization, the impacts of certification on smallholder farmers, the perception by local consumers). Her area of expertise includes other initiatives (fair trade, GlobalGAP, geographical indications) and other countries (Costa Rica, Madagascar, Myanmar, Vietnam). Within the research unit MOISA (Montpellier Interdisciplinary centre on sustainable Agri-food systems) her recent work focuses on pathways and levers of transformation towards more sustainable food systems.

Naidu Vahini

Programme Coordinator of the Trade for Development Programme of the South Centre

Ms. Vahini Naidu is the Programme Coordinator of the Trade for Development Programme of the South Centre. Prior to joining the South Centre, she was an international trade negotiator for the Department of Trade and Industry in South Africa covering regional and multilateral trade negotiations. Her trade negotiating areas include trade in services, e-commerce and the digital economy, development and Special and Differential Treatment, Domestic Regulation and Rules of Origin in Services. She was a diplomat at the South African Permanent Mission to the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland. She holds a Bachelor of Laws Degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a Master of Commerce Degree from the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business