Welcoming the new YPARD Brazil communications focal point: Danilo Crispim Massuela

YPARD is delighted to welcome Danilo Crispim Massuela as the Communication Focal Person for YPARD Brazil. 

Danilo is a graduate with a Master’s degree in Agricultural Sciences in the Tropics and Subtropics from the University of Hohenheim, Germany and a Bachelor in Food Engineering from Mauá Institute of Technology, Brazil. Currently, Danilo is pursuing a PhD in Crop Sciences, in the research field of medical cannabis cultivation systems, related extraction technologies and sociological discourses at the University of Hohenheim, Germany.

Food enthusiast by passion, food engineer and agricultural specialist by education. Danilo has been swinging across a broad range of research areas related to food culture; ranging from food science, post-harvest technologies and commercialization, crop sciences and agricultural production to rural sociology. Danilo considers himself a generalist rather than a specialist; and the opportunity to broaden his horizons on all steps, actors and procedures relevant to food systems has guided his curiosity and academic interests so far. For him, only interdisciplinary actions and teamwork are able to tackle the current global challenges in areas of food production, sustainability, societal equity and rural development.

Through his bachelor thesis with the application of edible insects as a novel animal protein source to his master thesis research with marginalized rural minorities and Quilombola traditional communities of Brazil, Danilo has been deeply interested in the fields of agricultural development, the fight against hunger and the design and execution of national programs and public policies to promote youth empowerment and social emancipation.

This year, Danilo connected and built a team of volunteers from several areas (as project management, photography, communication and marketing specialists) to create political strategies and social media campaigns to one of the Quilombola community’s leadership - to participate in the Brazilian parliamentary run in 2020. This action culminated in the election of the first black, Quilombola woman to ever occupy a position in the region parliament. Empowered, she will be able to design and vote for new laws to tackle the problems and address the demands of her rural community.

At the account of joining YPARD as a focal communication person, this is what Danilo had to say: “Being part of YPARD motivates me to connect with people, to form transdisciplinary teams and to engage in such projects; to which as small as they sound in the global level, they mean everything for the local people and their realities. And by joining forces and collecting such small wins, we hope to make the world a more equal place by connecting youth people engaged in real change”.

Danilo Crispim Massuela who has been a member of YPARD since 2016 is happy to join the YPARD Brazil chapter as the Communication Focal Person. The position will enable him to use the experience build over different areas of expertise to interact, connect and commit engaged youth in agricultural development projects all over Brazil, respecting the different landscape and cultural particularities of this plural nation.

Welcome on board Danilo Crispim Massuela!