Agri-food and Forestry Sectors for Sustainable Development: Innovations to Address the Ecosystems-Resources-Climate-Food-Health Nexus

Author Biography

Francesco Meneguzzo is a researcher at the Institute for BioEconomy of the Italian National Research Council (Ibe-Cnr). His career started in 1992 as a researcher and meteorologist, first as an Officer in the Italian Air Force, next at the Regional Agency for Agriculture and forestry (ARSIA), Tuscany Regional Government and at the Laboratory for Meteorology and Environmental Modelling (LaMMA) - regional weather service.  In 2001, he joined the Italian National Research Council(CNR) at the Ibimet-Cnr Institute and focused his research interests on climatology and land impacts of extreme weather and climate events. In 2001-2003, he was expert member of the Technical Committee of the Arno River Basin Authority in Florence, Italy, appointed with decree by the Public Works Ministry – General Direction for Soil Protection. Later his main research interests shifted to energy systems, energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and energy policy. In 2007-2008, he was expert member of the Ministerial Commission for the best technologies in the field of bioenergy, as well as expert member of the Commission for the evaluation of proposals for feasibility studies, both established at the Italian Ministry for Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies. In 2009, he joined the efforts to check the predictions of a comprehensive new physical theory ranging from sub-nuclear to astrophysical phenomena, as well as to investigate its practical applications. Around 2012, he started devoting part of his research to technological innovation with special focus on industrial processes and new materials, especially dealing with biological systems relating to the agricultural and food sectors. In particular, he deepened the study of controlled hydrodynamic cavitation and its hybrid variants, as well as participated to the implementation of such technologies into laboratory to pre-industrial scale installations. Since 2017, he joined the Laboratory for agri-food applications of controlled hydrodynamic cavitation (HCT-Agrifood Lab). Here, his main research and experimental interests have focused on the exploitation of biological resources (plants, crops, food waste and byproducts), mainly by means of innovative extraction methods complying with the principle of green extraction of natural products. Moreover, also on behalf of the Central Scientific Committee of the Italian Alpine Club (Csc-Cai), he focused on the analysis and exploitation of agricultural and forest ecosystem services, including forest therapy. He has participated in several research projects, and has co-authored more than 150 scientific articles, book chapters, technical reports and presentations at national and international conferences. Federica Zabini is a researcher at the Institute for BioEconomy of the Italian National Research Council (Ibe-Cnr). She deals with communication and scientific dissemination onthe topics of meteorology, climate change and environmental sustainability. She formerly worked for the "Kyoto Observatory" project to monitor the carbon dioxide balance and to activate information tools and support for regional planning in the fields of energy, transport and agriculture. Since 2010, she has been in charge of the institutional communication activities of the LaMMA Consortium (CNR - Tuscany Region, Regional Weather Service). More recently, her research interests have focused on technological innovation in the agri-food and forestry sector, joining the Laboratory for Agri-food applications of controlled hydrodynamic cavitation (HCT-Agrifood Lab), with the responsibility of project management and communication, as well as contributing to research activities. She has participated in several research projects, and has co-authored several scientific articles, book chapters, technical reports and presentations at national and international conferences.