Hannes Lorenzen is senior adviser to the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Parliament. Mr. Lorenzen comes to the US to attend the Annual Convention of the National Farmers Union in San Antonio, TX (March 12-14) and for meetings with agriculture and trade experts in Washington, DC (March 11 and March 15-17) to discuss current developments in the US Farm Bill, as well as the latest initiative of reforming European Agriculture Policy. On the sides of his visit, Mr. Lorenzen will also discuss experiences of European farmers with renewable energies and implications for rural development. The latter is part of HBF’s dialogue program The Climate Network.
Mr. Lorenzen holds a Masters degree in Sociology with a postgraduate degree in International Agriculture (TU Berlin) with special professional competence in international negotiations (EU-Institute for Public Administration, Maastricht) and Mediation (School for Mediation, Steyerberg). He did research and evaluation on rural development projects with the Technical Service of the German Government (GTZ and KfW in Mexico and Lesotho). Hannes Lorenzen is Co-founder of Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN) and co-president of the European Rural Development Network Forum Synergies. He is chairperson of Partnership for rural Europe network of Central and Eastern European Member States (PREPARE) and member of the organizing group of CURE - Convention for a sustainable urban and rural Europe.
He has co-founded and animates the European Reform Alliance ARC (Agricultural and Rural Convention) which has gathered over 100 networks and umbrella organizations of civil society, including farmers, environmentalists, animal welfare groups-, rural development and public health organizations which have negotiated and agreed upon a common proposal on CAP reform and are working with the European Commission, the European Parliament and member states on a paradigm shift in European Agriculture and a renaissance of rural regions.