Rural Europe on the move English_E_version_all | Page 15
The average age of the 10 of us around the table
is 45. In EU terms that is the limit to be considered
as a young farmer and to qualify for special juvenile
support. Helene Schulze is our youngest. Tonight is
her birthday. She will be 24 - the same age as Forum
Synergies - a happy coincidence indeed. She should
be our team leader because her future is the longest.
Born in London to German parents, Helene studied
geography and environmental governance, directs
the London Freedom Seed Bank, is engaged in food
justice and works as a writer on food, farming and rural
development, particularly at ARC2020.
Helene draws our story to a close in chapter 13.
Travelling is also Philippe Barret’s passion. In
fact, he is a nomad of our time from the beginning
as he spent half of his childhood in North Africa. His
grandmother is from Napoli, his father from Provence
in southern France, where in 1983 he founded GEYSER,
an organisation for sustainable development of rural
areas. Apart from travelling through France, Europe
and the wider world, he always has a curious eye on
farmers’ ecological knowledge and dreams. From time
to time he withdraws for ‘randonnées’, walks through
wild nature with just enough to eat and drink. In his
professional life he is environmental mediator.
We will hear from Philippe in chapter 8.
Together with Philippe, Hannes Lorenzen is
co-founder of Forum Synergies. His roots are almost
on the other extreme, in the far North of Europe,
on the North Frisian island of Pellworm, where he
founded and leads an association for sustainable
island development. He served 35 years as a civil
servant in the European Parliament in Brussels.
Besides his work inside European institutions, he
has founded and animated local, European and
international civil society movements. As a reward for
this he received a sculpture called ‘Crazy Dancer’. The
artist of the sculpture is revealed at the end of this
chapter.
3. Helene Schultze
4. Philippe Barret
5. Hannes Lorenzen
Read more about Pellworm island and European
networking in chapter 9.
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