Global Food System Resilience: Navigating Uncertainty and Systemic Change
Food systems around the world are facing unprecedented challenges. Climate change, geopolitical instability, market volatility, biodiversity loss, resource constraints, and shifting societal expectations are creating new uncertainties while exposing existing vulnerabilities. At the same time, rapid advances in digital technologies and artificial intelligence are transforming food systems at an unprecedented pace, creating both new opportunities and new sources of risk.
Recent years have demonstrated how interconnected and fragile food systems can be. The COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical conflicts, supply chain disruptions, energy price shocks, and increasingly frequent extreme weather events have underscored the need for food systems that can withstand shocks and adapt to change. Yet these challenges also present opportunities to rethink, redesign, and strengthen food systems for the future.
Building resilient food systems requires balancing productivity with sustainability, efficiency with robustness, and local needs with global interdependencies. Agricultural economists are uniquely positioned to contribute to this challenge. By examining the decisions of farmers, consumers, businesses, and policymakers, and by analysing the institutions and incentives that shape food systems, agricultural economists provide essential insights into how resilience can be achieved in practice.
The XIX EAAE Congress “Global Food System Resilience: Navigating Uncertainty and Systemic Change” provides a platform for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to explore these challenges and opportunities. It invites contributions that advance our understanding of resilience across local, national, and global food systems, addressing topics such as climate adaptation and mitigation, risk management, supply chain resilience, innovation and technological change, agricultural and food policy, international trade, and rural development.
As societies confront an era characterized by increasing uncertainty and accelerating change, agricultural economists have a vital role to play in generating evidence-based solutions and informing effective decision-making. This conference seeks to foster interdisciplinary dialogue, encourage methodological innovation, and contribute to the development of resilient food systems capable of meeting present and future challen
Programme Committee
EAAE Presidency
- Paolo Sckokai, EAAE President, Professor in agricultural and food economics, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy
- Attila Jámbor, EAAE Vice-President, Professor in agricultural economics, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
Chair & Working Group Leads
- Liesbeth Dries, Chair of the Programme Committee, Associate Professor in agricultural economics and rural policy, Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands
- Fabio Bartolini, Head of Working Group – Organised Sessions, Associate Professor in agricultural economics, University of Ferrara, Italy
- María Pilar Gracia de Rentería, Head of Working Group – Posters, Assistant Professor in applied economics, University of Zaragoza, Spain
- Sophie Thoyer, Head of Working Group – Plenary Speakers, Research Professor in environmental economics, INRAE – Center for Environmental Economics of Montpellier, France
- Hugo Storm, Head of Working Group – Contributed Papers, Research Group Leader, data science in agricultural economics, University of Bonn, Germany
Committee Members
- Frederic Ang, Associate Professor in agri-food economics, University of Reading, United Kingdom
- Miroslava Bavorová, Associate Professor in economics and development, Czech University of Life Sciences, Czech Republic
- Nadja El Benni, Head of the strategic research division on Sustainability Assessment and Agricultural Management, Agroscope, Switzerland
- Jan Falkowski, Associate Professor in political economy, University of Warsaw, Poland
- Luka Juvančič, Professor in agricultural and resource economics and policy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Zuzana Smeets–Kristková, Senior Researcher, EU policy impact assessment; Associate Professor in economics, Wageningen University & Research / Czech University of Life Sciences, Netherlands
- Tamás Krisztin, Senior Researcher, biosphere futures, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria
- Karine Latouche, Senior Researcher in international trade, INRAE – French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, France
- Miroslava Rajčániová, Professor of economic policy and finance, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Slovakia
- Ana Isabel Sanjuán López, Senior Researcher in agricultural economics, Centre of Agrofood Research and Technology of Aragon (CITA), Spain
- Stefanella Stranieri, Associate Professor in agricultural and food economics, University of Milan, Italy
- Christian Stetter, Lecturer in agricultural economics and policy, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
- Mette Termansen, Professor in environmental and natural resource economics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- Achilleas Vassilopoulos, Assistant Professor of behavioural economics in agri-food and the environment, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece
- Maria Vrachioli, Senior Researcher and Senior Lecturer in production and resource economics, Technical University of Munich, Germany
- Julian Zeilinger, Research associate in agricultural economics; Lecturer in agricultural policy, Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics, Rural and Mountain Research, BOKU University, Austria
Local Organising Committee
University of Zagreb Faculty of Agriculture
Marija Cerjak
Chair · PhD, Full Professor
Full professor at the Department of Marketing and Innovation in Agribusiness with more than 25 years of experience at the Faculty of Agriculture in Zagreb. She was a member of the organizing committee for the International Food Marketing Research Symposium 2017 and the 183rd EAAE Seminar 2022, and initiated and organized the first four ‘Innovations in Agribusiness’ conferences. Author of more than 60 papers, her research focuses on agricultural marketing and food consumer behaviour, with involvement in EU projects under HORIZON 2020, PRIMA, ERASMUS+ and COST. She is a member of the Board of the European Association of Agricultural Economists.
Aleksandar Mešić
PhD, Dean & Full Professor
Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture in Zagreb and full professor at the Division for Phytomedicine. Experienced in organizing major conferences including the 14th ICA Rectors and Deans Forum 2024 and the 32nd Session of EIFAAC/FAO 2024. His work covers phytopharmacy, pesticide application and entomology, complemented by an MBA in agribusiness. He is a board member of the Croatian Plant Protection Society and part of the national section for Codex Alimentarius.
Josip Juračak
PhD, Associate Professor
Associate professor teaching farm management, entrepreneurship, human resource management and rural development. An active member of the EAAE, the Croatian Society of Agricultural Economists and the AGRIMBA network, he is a former president of HAED and deputy dean of the faculty. His work spans farm budgeting, rural entrepreneurship, agricultural policy evaluation and experimental economics, with specialised training at BOKU Vienna, the USDA Economic Research Service and others.
Željka Mesić
PhD, Associate Professor
Associate Professor at the Department of Marketing in Agriculture since 2005, focusing on market analysis, rural tourism, consumer behaviour and supply chain analysis. She has studied at universities across Europe and the USA and contributed to EU projects under HORIZON 2020, INTERREG, ERASMUS+ and COST Action. She is a member of the EAAE and of HAED, the Croatian association of agricultural economists, and serves on the editorial board of Agroeconomia Croatica.
Marina Tomić Maksan
PhD, Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor at the Department of Marketing and Innovation in Agribusiness. She has served on the organising committee of several conferences, including the International Food Marketing Research Symposium 2017 and the 59th Croatian and 19th International Symposium of Agriculture (2024). Her research in food marketing and consumer behaviour appears in journals such as Food Quality and Preference, Appetite and the British Food Journal. She sits on the editorial board of the Journal of International Food & Agribusiness Marketing.
Magdalena Zrakić Sušac
PhD, Assistant Professor
Assistant professor at the Faculty of Agriculture since 2011, with interests in agricultural policy, rural development and rural tourism. She has taken part in numerous national and international research projects and authored or co-authored around one hundred scientific and professional papers. She teaches Bachelor’s and Master’s courses and has helped organize several scientific and professional events, including expert meetings and workshops on agri-food markets in EU and Western Balkan countries.
Darija Borović
MS, PhD Student
Assistant and PhD student at the Department of Marketing and Innovation in Agribusiness. She studied at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the University of Bologna, and completed an international summer school on sustainable food economics in Warsaw. A recipient of a Dean’s Award and scholarships from the Croatian Agroeconomic Society and European Forum Alpbach, she has completed a project management academy and a mini-MBA in finance, with more than five years of end-to-end project and event management experience in Croatia and internationally.
PCO Agency
- Company
- A.T.I. d.o.o.
- Address
- Zadarska 15, 52100 Pula, Croatia
- info@ati.hr
- Web
- www.ati.hr
- VAT
- HR29635530727
