Urs Niggli is Director General of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in Switzerland (since 1990). He is responsible for the overall scientific, financial and administrative co-ordination of the institute with 200 staff and 80 students. He is also president of FiBL Germany, FiBL Austria and FiBL Europe in Brussels (100 scientific staff). His strategic and operational responsibilities include research in all areas of agricultural production and the entire value chain, advising farmers, training young academics and general future issues such as climate change, environmental problems and biodiversity loss. Within the framework of projects of FiBL in 40 low-income-countries, he has a special interest in sustainable food and farming systems. Urs Niggli is Honorary Professor at the University of Kassel in Germany where he teaches on organic farming policy and research strategy in the EU. He was appointed as Honorary PhD by the University of Life Sciences in Estonia as well as Honorary Professor at the China Agricultural University in Beijing (CA): His professional background is MSc and PhD in plant production. He started his career as weed scientist in grassland, arable and horticultural crops at two Swiss Federal Research Stations Agroscope. He serves on boards of national, European and international committees for research, agro-ecology, sustainability and organic farming. He has published or co-authored 250 papers.